Single-cell data reveal heterogeneity of investment in ribosomes across a bacterial population.

ABSTRACT: Ribosomes are responsible for the synthesis of proteins, the major component of cellular biomass. Classical experiments have established a linear relationship between the fraction of resources invested in ribosomal proteins and the rate of balanced growth of a microbial population. Very little is known, however, about how the investment in ribosomes varies over individual cells in a population. We therefore extended the study of ribosomal resource allocation from populations to single cells, using a combination of time-lapse fluorescence microscopy and statistical inference. We found a large variability of ribosome concentrations and growth rates in conditions of balanced growth of the model bacterium Escherichia coli in a given medium, which cannot be accounted for by the population-level

SUBMITTER: Pavlou A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11695989 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature