Fig 5. Overexpression of DivK may prevent the cell from progressing though different developmental stages.

For better comparison of mutant and wild-type distributions, the colors indicate concentration gradients from zero (blue) to maximum wild-type concentration, C ^wt_max (red). For C ^wt_max < C ^mut_max, the red color represents all concentrations from C ^wt_max to C ^mut_max. For C ^wt_max > C ^mut_max, an additional tick between 0 and C ^wt_max indicates maximum concentration in the mutant. (A) A four-fold increase in DivK synthesis (k _syn = 0.2 min^-1) prevents competition between DivL and PleC kinase. DivL is not reactivated in the predivisional stage, leading to the loss of CckA kinase and CtrA~P asymmetry in the early predivisional stage. (B) An eight-fold increase in DivK synthesis (k _syn = 0.4 min^-1) induces PleC to become a kinase independent of DivJ. Hence, the swarmer stage of the cell cycle is circumvented.