Figure 7

Diagram of patterns of DNA replication during the division cycle in bacteria. The different patterns go from an infinite interdivision time (i.e., essentially no or extremely slow growth) to cells with 90, 60, 50, 40, 35, 30, 25, and 20 minute interdivision times. In all cases, the rate of replication fork movement is 40 minutes for a round of replication or one-quarter of the genome every 10 minutes. All rounds of replication end 20 minutes before the end of the cell cycle. This is most clearly seen in the 60-minute cells where a newborn cell has one genome, which replicates for 40 minutes ending replication 20 minutes before cell division. The same rules are drawn here for a 90-minute and a very slow growing cell (infinite interdivision time). The large numbers in each pattern at the left indicate the number of origins to be initiated at each time of initiation of replication. Thus, in the 60-minute cells there is one origin in the newborn cell. Consider that the cell mass is given a unit value for each origin to be initiated. Thus, the newborn cell in the 60-minute case is given a size of 1.0 unit of mass. This means that the dividing cell in the 60-minute cells is size 2.0. Mass increases, in the 60-minute case, from 1 to 2. In the 90-minute cells the cell of size 1 is one third of the way through the cell cycle. Since mass increases continuously during the division cycle it is clear that the newborn cell in the 90-minute culture is less than 1.0 in size. Let us say it was something like size 0.7. In this case the newborn cell in the 90-minute cells would be size 0.7 and the dividing cell would be size 1.4. It is clear that the 90-minute cells are, on average, smaller than the 60 minute cells. Similarly, if we consider the very slow cells, the cell of size 1.0 is very near the end of the cell cycle, and the newborn cell is slightly above size 0.5. Since the very slow growing cells (top panel) go from sizes 0.5 to 1.0 and the 60 minutes cells go from size 1.0 to 2.0, the 60 minute cells are twice as large as the very slow growing cells. The 30-minute cells have two origins in the newborn cell and thus the newborn cells can be considered size 2.0 with the dividing cells 4.0. The 20-minute cells have a newborn cell of size 4.0 (four origins in the newborn cell) and a dividing size of 8.0. As one goes from extremely long interdivision time, to 60, to 30 to 20, the relative sizes go from 0.5, to 1, to 2 to 4, with the growth rates expressed as doublings per hour, or 0 (infinite interdivision time), 1 (60 minute interdivision time), 2 (30 minute interdivision time), and 3 (20 minute interdivision time). Cells that initiate DNA replication in the middle of the cycle may be considered as follows. The 40-minute cell has two origins in the middle of the cell cycle so the mid-aged cell is size 2.0. The newborn cell might be some size like 1.5 and the dividing cell something like 3.0. Thus, the 40-minute cell has an average size intermediate between the 60 and the 30-minute cell. Similarly, the 25-minute cell also initiates mid-cycle, but there are 4 origins at the time of initiation. Thus, the mid-aged cell in this case is size 4.0 and the newborn cell may be considered something like size 3.0. The cell sizes go from 3.0 to 6.0, and these cells are larger than the 30-minute cells and smaller than the 20 minute cells.