Figure 5.

Pole-to-pole oscillations of MinD and MinE: MinD recruits both itself and MinE from the cytosol creating an attachment zone for both proteins (1). As MinDE complexes accumulate in the polar zone, their detachment begins to dominate over MinD attachment. (2) The old polar zone traps MinE because it is both an attachment and a detachment zone for MinE, i.e. it only cycles locally, as long as there is free MinD left on the membrane. This allows cytosolic MinD to form a new polar zone at the other end of the cell. MinE trapping ends when all MinD has detached from the old polar zone, such that the new polar zone becomes an attachment zone for MinE (3), and the process starts over at the opposite end of the cell (4).