Bringing the Mountain to Mohammed

Bacteria have often been thought of as bags of proteins and nucleotides, without internal structure. But, as discussed by Losick and Shapiro in their Perspective, evidence is accumulating that bacterial proteins do have specified locations within the cell. The most recent result to support this view is presented in this issue by Lemon and Grossman, who show that the DNA replication apparatus of bacteria are confined to the center of the cell. Losick and Shapiro discuss these findings.

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