Phenotypic plasticity in cell elongation among closely related bacterial species

Marie Delaby, Liu Yang, Maxime Jacq, Kelley A. Gallagher, David T. Kysela, Velocity Hughes, Francisco Pulido, Frederic J. Veyrier, Michael S. VanNieuwenhze and Yves V. Brun ()
Additional contact information
Marie Delaby: Université de Montréal
Liu Yang: Université de Montréal
Maxime Jacq: Université de Montréal
Kelley A. Gallagher: Université de Montréal
David T. Kysela: Université de Montréal
Velocity Hughes: Université de Montréal
Francisco Pulido: Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique
Frederic J. Veyrier: Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique
Michael S. VanNieuwenhze: 800 East Kirkwood Avenue
Yves V. Brun: Université de Montréal

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract Cell elongation in bacteria has been studied over many decades, in part because its underlying mechanisms are targets of numerous antibiotics. While multiple elongation modes have been described, little is known about how these strategies vary across species and in response to evolutionary and environmental influences. Here, we use fluorescent D-amino acids to track the spatiotemporal dynamics of bacterial cell elongation, revealing unsuspected diversity of elongation modes among closely related species of the family Caulobacteraceae. We identify species-specific combinations of dispersed, midcell and polar elongation that can be either unidirectional or bidirectional. Using genetic, cell biology, and phylogenetic approaches, we demonstrate that evolution of unidirectional-midcell elongation is accompanied by changes in the localization of the peptidoglycan synthase PBP2. Our findings reveal high phenotypic plasticity in elongation mechanisms, with implications for our understanding of bacterial growth and evolution.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60005-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-60005-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60005-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().