Mechanistic Origin of Cell-Size Control and Homeostasis in Bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Evolutionarily divergent bacteria share a common phenomenological strategy for cell-size homeostasis under steady-state conditions. In the presence of inherent physiological stochasticity, cells following this "adder" principle gradually return to their steady-state size by adding a constant volume between birth and division, regardless of their size at birth. However, the mechanism of the adder has been unknown despite intense efforts. In this work, we show that the adder is a direct consequence of two general processes in biology: (1) threshold-accumulation of initiators and precursors required for cell division to a respective fixed number-and (2) balanced biosynthesis-maintenance of their production proportional to volume growth. This mechanism is naturally robust to static growth inhi

SUBMITTER: Si F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6548602 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature