New Graduate Studentship Opportunity Molecular Biology of Cell Division, Differentiation, and Morphogenesis in Bacillus subtilis . On starvation the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis stops growing and initiates sporulation.
Sporulation begins with a reorganisation of the cell cycle.
The central division that would normally occur, to produce identical daughter cells, is blocked and the cell divides asymmetrically to produce a small polar prespore cell and a much larger mother cell. The two cells then undertake a simple developmental process, orchestrated primarily by the programmed synthesis and activation of transcription factors called sigma factors, that culminates with the programmed death of the mother cell by lysis and release of the mature spore. Click here to view a summary of the advantages and applications of GFP written by an ex lab member, Dr Peter Lewis.