Global analysis of a bacterial cell cycle: tracking down necessary functions and their regulators.

New, post-genomic analyses are increasing the rate at which information about highly complex processes such as bacterial growth and development can be acquired. The recent use of DNA-microarray and proteomic analysis to study the differentiating bacterium Caulobacter crescentus has provided the first global view of the requirements of a bacterium as it progresses through its cell cycle. Potential regulators of cell cycle progression have been identified, and it has been suggested that proteolysis could have a global role in regulating the bacterial cell cycle.