Wide lag time distributions break a trade-off between reproduction and survival in bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Many microorganisms face a fundamental trade-off between reproduction and survival: Rapid growth boosts population size but makes microorganisms sensitive to external stressors. Here, we show that starved bacteria encountering new resources can break this trade-off by evolving phenotypic heterogeneity in lag time. We quantify the distribution of single-cell lag times of populations of starved Escherichia coli and show that population growth after starvation is primarily determined by the cells with shortest lag due to the exponential nature of bacterial population dynamics. As a consequence, cells with long lag times have no substantial effect on population growth resumption. However, we observe that these cells provide tolerance to stressors such as antibiotics. This allows an isog

SUBMITTER: Moreno-Gamez S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7414188 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature