We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Directed evolution of cell size in Escherichia coli.
- Authors
Mari Yoshida; Saburo Tsuru; Naoko Hirata; Shigeto Seno; Hideo Matsuda; Bei-Wen Ying; Tetsuya Yomo
- Abstract
Background: In bacteria, cell size affects chromosome replication, the assembly of division machinery, cell wall synthesis, membrane synthesis and ultimately growth rate. In addition, cell size can also be a target for Darwinian evolution for protection from predators. This strong coupling of cell size and growth, however, could lead to the introduction of growth defects after size evolution. An important question remains: can bacterial cell size change and/or evolve without imposing a growth burden? Results: The directed evolution of particular cell sizes, without a growth burden, was tested with a laboratory Escherichia coli strain. Cells of defined size ranges were collected by a cell sorter and were subsequently cultured. This selection-propagation cycle was repeated, and significant changes in cell size were detected within 400 generations. In addition, the width of the size distribution was altered. The changes in cell size were unaccompanied by a growth burden. Whole genome sequencing revealed that only a few mutations in genes related to membrane synthesis conferred the size evolution Conclusions: In conclusion, bacterial cell size could evolve, through a few mutations, without growth reduction. The size evolution without growth reduction suggests a rapid evolutionary change to diverse cell sizes in bacterial survival strategies.
- Subjects
CELL size; CHROMOSOME replication; ESCHERICHIA coli; CELL membranes; BIOLOGICAL evolution
- Publication
BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2014, Vol 14, Issue 1, p104
- ISSN
1471-2148
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1186/s12862-014-0257-1