Asymmetric division in DNA damage-induced filaments during recovery. (A) Representative time-lapse montage of filamentous cells during recovery. White asterisks indicate divisions occurring toward a cell pole. Scale bar = 5 µm; time in minutes here and in all other images. Images were taken every 2 min. (B) Cell length of two daughter cells generated from a single division in wild-type conditions. Each gray dot represents a single division event (n = 157). The red line plots the expected values if all cells were dividing at their midpoint. (C) Cell length of long daughter (LD) and short daughter (SD) generated from a DNA damage-induced filament during recovery. Cells are treated with mitomycin-C (MMC) for 60 min. Each gray dot represents a single division event (n = 531). The red line plots the expected values if all cells were dividing at their midpoint. (D) Location of division is plotted as a function of cell length in filamentous E. coli during recovery from DNA damage treatment (60 min; n = 531). (E) Cell length of a long daughter (LD) and short daughter (SD) is tracked over time during damage recovery. Decrease in cell length is indicative of division. (F) Distribution of SD lengths generated from filaments between 12 and 40 µm long after 30, 60, and 90 min of MMC treatment (n = 142 [30 min], 363 [60 min], 96 [90 min]). (G) As C for cells treated with MMC for 30 min (n = 151). (H) Fate of SD and LD during recovery. Cell is classified as recovered if it undergoes midcell division and produces a daughter of wild-type size and filamentous if it continues to filament after division (n = 116 [30 min, LD], 98 [60 min, LD], 106 [90 min, LD], 150 [30 min, SD], 264 [60 min, SD], 150 [90 min, SD]). (I) Number of divisions per cell in 1 h for all durations of damage treatment. As a control, the number of divisions wild-type cells undergo is also shown (n = 50 [wt], 150 [filaments]). (J) Distribution of time between divisions for wild-type (no damage control), damage-induced filament, and SD during recovery from MMC (n = 148 [wt], 611 [filament], 468 [SD]).