spindle shaped

METPO:1000692 · CLASS · REVIEWED

A cell shape that is widest at the middle and tapers symmetrically toward pointed poles.

Spindle-shape symmetric polar taper

DOI-backed graph linking symmetric tapered polar wall growth and reduced end-cap radius to spindle morphology.

Edge evidence

symmetric polar peptidoglycan growth produces reduced end-cap radius METPO:2000202
Symmetric polar growth produces reduced end-cap radius at both poles.
- DOI:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-101011-155745 polar growth Supports polar PG growth as the producer of tapered ends.
reduced end-cap radius causes spindle geometry biolink:causes
Reduced end-cap radius at both poles yields spindle geometry.
- DOI:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-101011-155745 cell shape is genetically determined Supports tapered geometry as a genetically determined shape outcome.
spindle geometry manifests as spindle shaped METPO:2007400
Spindle geometry manifests the spindle-shaped trait.
- DOI:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-101011-155745 cell shape is genetically determined Supports the trait endpoint.
localized peptidoglycan insertion required for non-spherical morphology
Spatially localized (non-dispersed) peptidoglycan insertion is required to generate any non-spherical, differentiated cell shape.
- DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2017.01264 To generate shapes other than a sphere, incorporation must occur at distinct rates in different locations and for defined periods of time. Broad mechanistic principle for non-spherical morphogenesis.
localized peptidoglycan insertion enables symmetric polar peptidoglycan growth RO:0002327
Generic localized PG insertion underlies the symmetric polar peptidoglycan growth that taper the poles.
- DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2017.01264 Localized, temporally defined PG incorporation is the general prerequisite for the symmetric polar growth that produces tapered spindle poles.

Provenance

Source: METPO (2025-11-25)
Author: Anthea Guo
Definition source: DOI:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-101011-155745

Parent traits (1)

cell shape METPO:1000666

Synonyms (1)

spindle RELATED_SYNONYM · metpo.owl

kg-microbe context

Matched 1 kg-microbe node via direct_metpo.

METPO:1000692 [-4.209, -2.313, -2.964, -1.593, …]

512-dim DeepWalkSkipGramEnsmallen embedding from kg-microbe (2026-04-25).

Nearest neighbors in embedding space

Top-8 cosine-similar METPO traits from the 2026-04-25 deepwalk (512-D).

morphology crescent shaped 0.896
morphology streptococcus arrangement 0.877
morphology cell shape 0.877
morphology tetrad arrangement 0.877
morphology staphylococcus arrangement 0.877
morphology sarcina arrangement 0.877
morphology triangular shaped 0.850
morphology diplococcus shaped 0.850

Curation history

2026-05-05T01:35:46.899347+00:00 · SEEDED_FROM_METPO · seed_from_metpo
imported from data/raw/metpo.owl (CLASS)
2026-05-11T22:45:00-07:00 · CURATED_CAUSAL_GRAPH · claude
Added DOI-backed definition and causal graph linking symmetric polar peptidoglycan growth and reduced end-cap radius to spindle morphology.
2026-05-20T03:35:31Z · GROUND_CAUSAL_PREDICATES · claude
Grounded 1 causal-edge predicate_id field(s) via mappings/predicate_grounding.tsv (METPO:2000202×1).
2026-05-23T21:30:07Z · GROUND_CAUSAL_PREDICATES · claude
Grounded 1 causal-edge predicate_id field(s) via mappings/predicate_grounding.tsv (METPO:2007400×1).
2026-05-24T04:13:19Z · RENAME_PREDICATE_LABELS · claude
Renamed 1 causal-edge predicate label(s) to align with existing groundings: shapes → causes ×1.
2026-05-24T04:13:22Z · GROUND_CAUSAL_PREDICATES · claude
Grounded 1 causal-edge predicate_id field(s) via mappings/predicate_grounding.tsv (biolink:causes×1).
2026-06-23T00:00:00Z · ENRICH_CAUSAL_GRAPH · claude
Added 2 evidence-backed generic edges (2 new nodes) from the deep-research report.
2026-06-24T17:21:14Z · GROUND_CAUSAL_PREDICATES · claude
Grounded 1 causal-edge predicate_id field(s) via mappings/predicate_grounding.tsv (RO:0002327×1).