Bacterial DNA segregation by the actin-like MreB protein

Faithful chromosome segregation is vital to all organisms. Eukaryotic cells use the tubulin-based cytoskeleton to segregate their chromosomes during mitosis. A handful of papers have provided convincing evidence that, in bacteria, this task is accomplished by the actin homolog MreB. In particular, a recent study by Gitai et al. demonstrates that MreB specifically binds to and segregates the replication origin of the bacterial chromosome.