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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1972 Aug;69(8):2312–2316. doi: 10.1073/pnas.69.8.2312

The Mode of Segregation of the Bacterial Cell Membrane

Elizabeth Weaver Green 1, Moselio Schaechter 1
PMCID: PMC426924  PMID: 4626404

Abstract

The distribution of phospholipids from labeled parental membranes to progeny cells was studied by autoradiography and a minicell system. The minicell experiments showed that, during growth, the parental membrane is diluted at the same rate in cells and in minicells, which indicates that ends of cells are not different from the cylindrical portions with regard to the distribution of parental molecules. The same result was obtained after labeling heme-containing proteins with δ-aminolevulinic acid. The autoradiographic experiments indicate that the membrane segregates in about 250 subunits 4 × 104 nm2 in size. These subunits appear to be conserved during growth.

Keywords: E. coli, minicell, phospholipids

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Selected References

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