Glycogen phase separation drives macromolecular rearrangement and asymmetric division in <i>Escherichia coli</i>.

ABSTRACT: Bacteria often experience nutrient limitation. While the exponential and stationary growth phases have been characterized in the model bacterium Escherichia coli, little is known about what transpires inside individual cells during the transition between these two phases. Through quantitative cell imaging, we found that the positions of nucleoids and cell division sites become increasingly asymmetric during transition phase. These asymmetries were coupled with asymmetric reorganization of protein, ribosome, and RNA probes in the cytoplasm. Results from live-cell imaging experiments, complemented with genetic and ¹³C whole-cell nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies, show that preferential accumulation of the storage polymer glycogen at the old cell pole leads to

SUBMITTER: Thappeta Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11042326 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature