Centre for Synthetic Biology and the Bioeconomy

Past Seminars

L-form bacteria and their potential applications

Dr Ling Juan Wu, Senior Research Associate, Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences (ICaMB)

Date/Time: 17th of October 2017, 13:00-14:00

Venue: CBCB Baddiley-Clark Building, large meeting room level 2

Abstract:

The cell wall is an essential part of the cell for most of the bacteria. It imposes the cell shape and also protects cells both from the external environment and against the internal turgor pressure. However, cell wall-less derivatives of bacteria that normally have a wall, called L-form bacteria, exist and can be generated under certain conditions. L-form bacteria are pleomorphic and they employ several different modes of division without using the cell division machinery that is essential for the walled cells. We have used microfluidic microscopy to study chromosome segregation in L-forms, and explored the possibilities of using these unique cells to study the proteins and cellular process that are essential for the walled cells.

 

Biography: 

Dr Ling Wu is a post-Dr working in Professor Jeff Errington’s group in Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology at Newcastle. She has worked with the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis for over 25 years, starting with the developmental process of sporulation, then on the coordination of chromosome segregation and cell division during growth. Recently she has expanded her research into L-form bacteria, trying to understand how these cells coordinated their chromosome segregation and division, and explore the potential of using L-forms in other applications.