Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • In Brief
  • Published:

Bacterial physiology

Cell stiffness beyond the wall

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 14, page 477 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Auer et al. developed the high-throughput 'GRABS' assay to study cell stiffness. Based on the concept that agarose provides mechanical resistance to cell elongation, GRABS measures the growth, and thus cell stiffness, of agarose-embedded cells in 96-well microplates. In a GRABS screen of 3,844 Escherichia coli deletion mutants, the 46 strongest hits — several of which were validated using a microfluidic bending assay — included not only genes with functions that are related to the cell envelope, as expected, but also 37 genes with other functions, including energy production and conversion; DNA replication, recombination and repair; and amino-acid transport and metabolism. The diversity of these functions suggests that cell stiffness is an emergent property that depends on processes beyond those that maintain the cell envelope.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Auer, G. K. et al. Mechanical genomics identifies diverse modulators of bacterial cell stiffness. Cell Syst. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2016.05.006 (2016)

Download references

Authors
  1. Naomi Attar
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Attar, N. Cell stiffness beyond the wall. Nat Rev Microbiol 14, 477 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2016.101

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2016.101

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Microbiology

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Microbiology newsletter — what matters in microbiology research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Microbiology