NDP reductase activity can be inhibited either by treatment with hydroxyurea or by incubation of an nrdA ts mutant strain at the non-permissive temperature. Both methods inhibit replication, but experiments on these two types of inhibition yielded very different results. The chemical treatment immediately inhibited DNA synthesis but did not affect the cell and nucleoid appearance, while the incubation of an nrdA101 mutant strain at the non-permissive temperature inhibited DNA synthesis after more than 50 min, and resulted in aberrant chromosome segregation, long filaments, and a high frequency of anucleate cells. These phenotypes are not induced by SOS. In view of these results, we suggest there is an indirect relationship between NDP reductase and the chromosome segregation machinery through the maintenance of the proposed replication hyperstructure.
Cell motility processes in non-muscle cells depend on the activity of motor proteins that bind to either microtubules or actin filaments. From presently available data it must be concluded that the driving force is generated by transient interaction of the respective motors with microtubules or actin filaments which then activates the binding and hydrolysis of ATP. This reaction results in an abrupt discharge of the motor molecule, the direction of which is determined by the spatial orientation of its binding to the helical and polar vehicle. The latter is thereby propelled in its length direction and simultaneously undergoes an axial rotation, while the expelled motor exerts an oppositely directed current in the surrounding fluid, comparable to jet propulsion. Force production, propulsion velocities and energy requirements known from in vitro studies comply with those derived from the theory. The theory opens new ways for the understanding of cellular activities such as particle transport, mitosis and morphodynamics.