Mutational analysis of developmental control in Caulobacter crescentus.

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Abstract
The relationship between the cell cycle and control of development was studied by a genetic analysis of C. crescentus. The behavior of conditional cell division mutants showed that cell cycle events, such as DNA replication and cell division, are organized into a dependent pathway(s), i.e., later steps cannot proceed until earlier ones are completed. The ability of these strains to develop normally under nonpermissive conditions suggested that flagellin synthesis and stalk formation are dependent on the completion of different cell-cycle steps: the periodicity of flagellin synthesis is achieved by coupling it to DNA chain elongation or completion, and stalk formation is dependent on a later step in the cell-division pathway. These developmental events are not required for cell division.