A noisy linear map underlies oscillations in cell size and gene expression in bacteria.

ABSTRACT: During bacterial growth, a cell approximately doubles in size before division, after which it splits into two daughter cells. This process is subjected to the inherent perturbations of cellular noise and thus requires regulation for cell-size homeostasis. The mechanisms underlying the control and dynamics of cell size remain poorly understood owing to the difficulty in sizing individual bacteria over long periods of time in a high-throughput manner. Here we measure and analyse long-term, single-cell growth and division across different Escherichia coli strains and growth conditions. We show that a subset of cells in a population exhibit transient oscillations in cell size with periods that stretch across several (more than ten) generations. Our analysis reveals that a simple law governing

SUBMITTER: Tanouchi Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4860008 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature