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Effect of the Min system on timing of cell division in Escherichia coli.

ABSTRACT: In Escherichia coli the Min protein system plays an important role in positioning the division site. We show that this system also has an effect on timing of cell division. We do this in a quantitative way by measuring the cell division waiting time (defined as time difference between appearance of a division site and the division event) and the Z-ring existence time. Both quantities are found to be different in WT and cells without functional Min system. We develop a series of theoretical models whose predictions are compared with the experimental findings. Continuous improvement leads to a final model that is able to explain all relevant experimental observations. In particular, it shows that the chromosome segregation defect caused by the absence of Min proteins has an important influence on timing of cell division. Our results indicate that the Min system affects the septum formation rate. In the absence of the Min proteins this rate is reduced, leading to the observed strongly randomized cell division events and the longer division waiting times.

SUBMITTER: Jia S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4121188 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effect of the Min system on timing of cell division in Escherichia coli.

Jia Shuxin S Keilberg Daniela D Hot Edina E Thanbichler Martin M Søgaard-Andersen Lotte L Lenz Peter P

PloS one 20140804 8

In Escherichia coli the Min protein system plays an important role in positioning the division site. We show that this system also has an effect on timing of cell division. We do this in a quantitative way by measuring the cell division waiting time (defined as time difference between appearance of a division site and the division event) and the Z-ring existence time. Both quantities are found to be different in WT and cells without functional Min system. We develop a series of theoretical model ...[more]

PMID: 25090009

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Project description:BackgroundA fundamental characteristic of cells is the ability to divide. To date, most parameters of bacterial cultures, including cell division, have been measured as cell population averages, assuming that all bacteria divide at a uniform rate.ResultsWe monitored the division of individual cells in Escherichia coli cultures during different growth phases. Our experiments are based on the dilution of green fluorescent protein (GFP) upon cell division, monitored by flow cytometry. The results show that the vast majority of E. coli cells in exponentially growing cultures divided uniformly. In cultures that had been in stationary phase up to four days, no cell division was observed. However, upon dilution of stationary phase culture into fresh medium, two subpopulations of cells emerged: one that started dividing and another that did not. These populations were detectable by GFP dilution and displayed different side scatter parameters in flow cytometry. Further analysis showed that bacteria in the non-growing subpopulation were not dead, neither was the difference in growth capacity reducible to differences in stationary phase-specific gene expression since we observed uniform expression of several stress-related promoters. The presence of non-growing persisters, temporarily dormant bacteria that are tolerant to antibiotics, has previously been described within growing bacterial populations. Using the GFP dilution method combined with cell sorting, we showed that ampicillin lyses growing bacteria while non-growing bacteria retain viability and that some of them restart growth after the ampicillin is removed. Thus, our method enables persisters to be monitored even in liquid cultures of wild type strains in which persister formation has low frequency.ConclusionIn principle, the approaches developed here could be used to detect differences in cell division in response to different environmental conditions and in cultures of unicellular organisms other than E. coli.

Dataset Information

Effect of the Min system on timing of cell division in Escherichia coli.

Publications

Effect of the Min system on timing of cell division in Escherichia coli.

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