Caulobacter crescentus, concentrating DivJ

Infographic: Nutrient Scarcity Drives Phase Separation in Bacteria

When the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus runs low on fuel, it can still replicate by clustering its remaining ATP around the cell division enzyme DivJ.

Viviane Callier

Jul 18, 2022 | 1 min read

ABOVE: When the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus runs low on fuel, it can still replicate by clustering its remaining ATP around the cell division enzyme DivJ © NANOCLUSTERING.COM

When nutrients are scarce and ATP levels are low, a condensate forms inside Caulobacter crescentus, concentrating DivJ, an enzyme critical for cell division. At sufficiently high local concentrations, DivJ can better utilize the molecules of ATP available to it, powering cell division. When researchers prevented the formation of condensates under ATP depletion, the concentration of DivJ was too low to efficiently use the dwindling fuel reserves. As a result, bacterial cells could grow but not divide, producing abnormally elongated shapes.