Stochasticity in colonial growth dynamics of individual bacterial cells.

ABSTRACT: Conventional bacterial growth studies rely on large bacterial populations without considering the individual cells. Individual cells, however, can exhibit marked behavioral heterogeneity. Here, we present experimental observations on the colonial growth of 220 individual cells of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium using time-lapse microscopy videos. We found a highly heterogeneous behavior. Some cells did not grow, showing filamentation or lysis before division. Cells that were able to grow and form microcolonies showed highly diverse growth dynamics. The quality of the videos allowed for counting the cells over time and estimating the kinetic parameters lag time (λ) and maximum specific growth rate (μmax) for each microcolony originating from a single cell. To interpret the observat

SUBMITTER: Koutsoumanis KP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3623257 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature