Brucella abortus, a Pathogenic Rhizobiale with a Complex Cell Cycle

Brucella abortus in a pathogenic Rhizobiale able to survive and replicate inside host cells. B. abortus shares many features of the Rhizobiales, such as an unusual lipopolysaccharide, periplasmic cyclic β-glucans, general stress response, unipolar growth, multipartite genome, asymmetric division, complex cell cycle regulation, and specific recruitment of proteins to the poles. Conserved regulators of cell cycle progression, like CtrA and GcrA, have been characterized in B. abortus.