The ftsA gene product: a possible connection between DNA replication and septation in Escherichia coli.

The study of Escherichia coli strain D-2, which harbours the ftsA2(ts) allele, has shown that temperature-induced filaments of this strain can divide, at 30 degrees C, in the absence of DNA replication and translation. Strain D-2 is thermosensitive during a period coincident with that in which the termination protein should be synthesized and exert its action. The ftsA gene product, which participates in the structure of the septum, needs for its synthesis a short period of DNA replication. The FtsA protein could be involved in a mechanism that coordinates chromosome replication and cell division by a pathway different from and independent of the SOS-induced response.