The Ethanologenic Bacterium Zymomonas Mobilis Divides Asymmetrically and Exhibits Heterogeneity in DNA Content

The alphaproteobacterium exhibits extreme ethanologenic physiology, making this species a promising biofuel producer. Numerous studies have investigated its biology relevant to industrial applications and mostly at the population level. However, the organization of single cells in this industrially important polyploid species has been largely uncharacterized. In the present study, we characterized basic cellular behavior of strain Zm6 under anaerobic conditions at the single-cell level. We observed that growing cells often divided at a nonmidcell position, which contributed to variant cell size at birth. However, the cell size variance was regulated by a modulation of cell cycle span, mediated by a correlation of bacterial tubulin homologue FtsZ ring accumulation with cell growth. The culture also exhibited heterogeneous cellular DNA content among individual cells, which might have been caused by asynchronous replication of chromosome that was not coordinated with cell growth. Furthermore, slightly angled divisions might have resulted in temporary curvatures of attached cells. Overall, the present study uncovers a novel bacterial cell organization in With increasing environmental concerns about the use of fossil fuels, development of a sustainable biofuel production platform has been attracting significant public attention. Ethanologenic species are endowed with an efficient ethanol fermentation capacity that surpasses, in several respects, that of baker's yeast (), the most-used microorganism for ethanol production. For development of a culture-based biorefinery, an investigation of its uncharacterized cell biology is important, because bacterial cellular organization and metabolism are closely associated with each other in a single cell compartment. In addition, the current work demonstrates that the polyploid bacterium exhibits a distinctive mode of bacterial cell organization, likely reflecting its unique metabolism that does not prioritize incorporation of nutrients for cell growth. Thus, another significant result of this work is to advance our general understanding in the diversity of bacterial cell architecture.