Slower growth of Escherichia coli leads to longer survival in carbon starvation due to a decrease in the maintenance rate.

ABSTRACT: Fitness of bacteria is determined both by how fast cells grow when nutrients are abundant and by how well they survive when conditions worsen. Here, we study how prior growth conditions affect the death rate of Escherichia coli during carbon starvation. We control the growth rate prior to starvation either via the carbon source or via a carbon-limited chemostat. We find a consistent dependence where death rate depends on the prior growth conditions only via the growth rate, with slower growth leading to exponentially slower death. Breaking down the observed death rate into two factors, maintenance rate and recycling yield, reveals that slower growing cells display a decreased maintenance rate per cell volume during starvation, thereby decreasing their death rate. In contrast, the ability t

SUBMITTER: Biselli E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7273699 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature