BACTERIA could be hiding skeletons in their closets. Instead of being mere
bags of fluid, many species may have an internal protein framework. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge
surprise,鈥� says Jeffery Errington of Oxford University. 鈥淎 fundamental
difference between bacteria and eukaryotes is supposed to be the lack of a
肠测迟辞蝉办别濒别迟辞苍.鈥�
His work on the rod-shaped Bacillus subtilis made him suspect that
it was more highly organised than the textbooks say. By using fluorescent
antibodies, his team showed that a protein called MreB forms a ring around the
middle of the cell, while another called MbI forms a central strut (Cell,
vol 104, p 913). They act like a scaffold, controlling the building
of the rigid outer wall.