Cell morphogenesis in Bacillus subtilis: from genetics to exploitation

细菌是地球上最丰富和最多样化的生物。它们占据了环境中每一个可以想象的利基，它们在即使是最困难的地方也能生存和繁荣的方式令人难以置信地多样化。他们是大多数关键周期的主要参与者，使我们的星球保持清洁和新鲜。它们栖息在我们的身体里，我们肠道里的友好细菌帮助我们消化食物，保护我们免受疾病的侵害。细菌也是一些最致命的致病因子。因此，我们需要了解细菌的基本特性。细菌细胞与人类细胞的不同之处在于，它们拥有一种叫做细胞壁的坚韧外壳。这种关键的结构保护细胞免受损害，并防止细胞内容物由于它们喜欢保持的高内部压力而破裂。壁的一个特别有趣的特征是，它需要扩大以适应细胞生长，同时始终保持完整。由于细胞壁至关重要，而且人类细胞中没有等效的结构，因此细胞壁也是我们最好的抗生素的目标。尽管它很重要，但我们对隔离墙及其建造方式的了解仍然相当贫乏。本项目的目的是研究一种特性良好的细菌，枯草芽孢杆菌，这是非常适合实验的壁的属性。我们希望确定所有的因素，需要作出墙和研究他们如何工作，从整个细胞，直到分子水平。这些知识的出现将对我们理解所有细菌中的细胞壁合成产生重要影响，并可能帮助我们找到新的抗生素，以帮助控制疾病。

Bacteria are the most abundant and diverse organisms on the planet. They occupy every conceivable niche in the environment and they are incredibly diverse in the ways they can survive and thrive in even the most difficult places. They are major players in most of the key cycles that keep our planet clean and fresh. They inhabit our bodies and the friendly bacteria in our guts help us digest food and protect us from disease. Bacteria are also some of the most deadly disease-causing agents. For all of these reasons, we need to understand the fundamental properties of bacteria. Bacterial cells differ from our own in possessing a tough outer shell called the wall. This critical structure protects the cells from damage and prevents the cell contents from bursting due to the high inside pressure they like to maintain. TA particularly interesting feature of the wall is that it needs to be enlarged to accommodate cell growth, whilst at all times remaining intact. Because the cell wall is critical and there is no equivalent structure in human cells, the wall is also the target for the best of our antibiotics. Despite its importance, our understanding of the wall and how it is made remain rather poor. The object of this project is to study the properties of the wall in a well characterized bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, which is very amenable to experimentation. We wish to identify all of the factors that are needed to make a wall and study how they work, from the whole cell, right down to the molecular level. The knowledge that emerges will have important implications for our understanding of wall synthesis in all bacteria, and it may help us to find new antibiotics that will help to keep disease agents at bay.