Figure 2.

The partitioning of DCC in bacterial cell division. (a) A Caulobacter cell attached to a solid substratum by its stalk. When it divides DCC (grey circle) remain within the stalked cell, while its rejuvenated daughter, a swarmer cell, swims away, then settles down and becomes a stalked cell itself. Stalked cells divide repeatedly, accumulate DCC, and eventually die. (b) E. coli appears to divide symmetrically, but an aggregate of DCC located near the old pole of the cell is asymmetrically partitioned into the cell that inherits the old pole, while the other is rejuvenated.