How Bacteria Control Their Size Scientists have traditionally studied bacteria in large numbers, not individually. Working with tens of millions of cells in a culture flask, they track their growth by looking at how much the cells dimmed light passing through a tube. Using this method, scientists learned that populations of bacteria grow exponentially, doubling in mass at regular time intervals. And so, not unreasonably, they assum that individual cells would do the same, dividing only when they have doubled in size. A group of scientists led by Suckjoon Jun, University of California-San Diego, and including Petra Levin, PhD, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St Louis, report that this hypothesis was incorrect. “Even though on average it is true that mass doubles,” Levin says, “when you look at individual cells it becomes apparent that something else is going on.” Instead of examining populations of cells growing in a flask or test tube, the Jun group instead used a microfluidics device called a “mother machine” to follow hundreds of thousands of individual cells from birth to division. They found that rather than doubling in size every generation, each cell added the same volume (or mass; the term reflects the measurement technique). Crucially a cell that was small added the same volume as a cell that was large. Why is this the rule? “Although this might seem counter-intuitive, over many generations this rule ensures that cells in a population maintain a constant size,” Levin says. Click here to read more: bit.ly/1zRVxOI [Source: Washington University in St Louis] Image: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, are so uniform in size they look like they were made in a factory. How do the bacteria manage to keep their size so uniform? [Photo credit: CDC]
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 05:42:23 +0000