Bacteria come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The true picture of bacterial morphological diversity is likely skewed due to an experimental focus on pathogens and industrially relevant organisms. Indeed, most of the work elucidating the genes and molecular processes involved in maintaining bacterial morphology has been limited to rod- or coccal-shaped model systems. The mechanisms of shape evolution, the molecular processes underlying diverse shapes and growth modes, and how individual cells can dynamically modulate their shape are just beginning to be revealed. Here we discuss recent work aimed at advancing our knowledge of shape diversity and uncovering the molecular basis for shape generation in noncanonical and morphologically complex bacteria.

细菌有各种各样的形状和大小。由于对病原体和与工业有关的生物体的实验重点，细菌形态多样性的真实画面可能会歪斜。实际上，大多数阐明维持细菌形态的基因和分子过程的工作仅限于棒状或球状模型系统。形状进化的机制，不同形状和生长模式下的分子过程以及单个细胞如何动态调节其形状的方法才刚刚开始被揭示。在这里，我们讨论了旨在增进我们对形状多样性的了解并揭示非规范和形态复杂细菌中形状生成的分子基础的最新工作。