Metabolism, cell growth and the bacterial cell cycle

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Abstract
The mechanisms by which bacteria alter the dynamics of their cell cycle to accommodate changes in nutrient availability have puzzled microbiologists for nearly 50 years. In this Opinion article, Wang and Levin summarize efforts to examine the links between nutrient availability, metabolic status, cell division and cell growth. Adaptation to fluctuations in nutrient availability is a fact of life for single-celled organisms in the 'wild'. A decade ago our understanding of how bacteria adjust cell cycle parameters to accommodate changes in nutrient availability stemmed almost entirely from elegant physiological studies completed in the 1960s. In this Opinion article we summarize recent groundbreaking work in this area and discuss potential mechanisms by which nutrient availability and metabolic status are coordinated with cell growth, chromosome replication and cell division.