Fig. 2
ftsZ84* suppressor mutants exhibit variable cell lengths and polar shapes under permissive and nonpermissive conditions. a Representative images of cell membrane staining of live wild-type cells, ftsZ84 and ftsZ84* strains under permissive and nonpermissive conditions. Bar = 5 μm. b Box and whisker plots of cell length distributions in permissive or nonpermissive conditions. Cells were grown in permissive conditions to an OD600 of 0.2-0.4 and sampled. For the nonpermissive conditions, cells were then backdiluted to an OD600 of 0.05 and grown to a sampling OD600 of 0.2 to 0.4. The box indicates the middle 50 % of values, the line indicates the median, the short bar indicates the mean, and the whisker bars represent the span of data in the lowest quartile (below the box) and the highest quartile (above the box). Values for ftsZ84*F39L and ftsZ84*V293I are conservative as many filaments extended past the field of view and could not be quantified. Note the upper values for the ftsZ84* mutants have been truncated; the number indicates the highest value measured. For permissive conditions, n = 146 (wild type), 132 (ftsZ84), 138 (ftsZ84*F39L), 139 (ftsZ84*M206I) and 110 (ftsZ84*V293I). For nonpermissive conditions, n = 102 (wild type), 42 (ftsZ84*F39L), 83 (ftsZ84*M206I), and 129 (ftsZ84*V293I). c ftsZ84* suppressor mutants exhibit branching, abnormal polar morphologies, and minicell formation. The fraction of cells exhibiting each morphology was determined by analyzing ~100-150 cells, the only exceptions being ftsZ84, ftsZ84*F39L, and ftsZ84*M206I under nonpermissive conditions where fewer cells were examined, respectively, as only whole cells were scored and it was rare to visualize an entire cell in the frame in these samples. For permissive conditions, n = 146 (wild type), 132 (ftsZ84), 138 (ftsZ84*F39L), 139 (ftsZ84*M206I), and 110 (ftsZ84*V293I). For nonpermissive conditions, n = 102 (wild type), 10 (ftsZ84), 42 (ftsZ84*F39L), 83 (ftsZ84*M206I) and 129 (ftsZ84*V293I). Bar = 3 μm