Related papers: Cell size regulation in microorganisms
Escherichia coli and other bacteria use rotating helical filaments to swim. Each cell typically has about four filaments, which bundle or disperse depending on the sense of motor rotation. To study the bundling process, we built a…
Cell migration is closely linked to cell shape, yet cell size is often assumed to remain constant. This assumption is challenged by recent experiments showing that cells undergo volume loss during spreading and swelling upon activation,…
Run-and-tumble is a common but vital strategy that bacteria employ to explore environment suffused with boundaries, as well as to escape from entrapment. In this study we reveal how this strategy and the resulting dynamical behavior can be…
We have performed a statistical analysis of the spatial distribution of operons in the transcriptional regulation network of Escherichia coli. The analysis reveals that operons that regulate each other and operons that are coregulated tend…
Controlling growth via cell division is crucial in the development of higher organisms, and yet the mechanisms through which this is achieved, e.g., in epithelial tissue, is not yet fully understood. We show that by coupling the cell cycle…
In Dictyostelium discoideum the proportion of cell types is known to be actively regulated, recovering, for example, after the removal of a given cell type. However, we have recently shown that regulation is intrinsically imprecise: it…
To model the morphogenesis of rod-shaped bacterial micro-colony, several individual-based models have been proposed in the biophysical literature. When studying the shape of micro-colonies, most models present interaction forces such as…
The transcriptional regulation of gene expression is orchestrated by complex networks of interacting genes. Increasing evidence indicates that these transcriptional regulatory networks (TRNs) in bacteria have an inherently hierarchical…
Bacteria have remarkably robust cell shape control mechanisms. For example, cell diameter only varies by a few percent across a population. MreB is necessary for establishment and maintenance of rod shape although the mechanism of shape…
We model the growth of a cell population using a piecewise deterministic Markov branching tree. In this model, each cell splits into two offspring at a division rate $B(x)$, which depends on its size $x$. The size of each cell increases…
Chloroplasts regulate their growth to optimize photosynthesis. Quantitative data shows that the ratio of total chloroplast area to mesophyll cell area is constant across different cells within a single species, and also across species.…
We study non-equilibrium bacterial colony growth using a geometry-first, time-resolved analysis of morphology. From time-lapse microscopy data, we track the coupled evolution of area, perimeter, and boundary-sensitive shape descriptors…
During development, spatio-temporal patterns ranging from checkerboard to engulfing occur with precise proportions of the respective cell fates. Key developmental regulators are intracellular transcriptional interactions and intercellular…
We have investigated the growth of Escherichia coli E.coli, a mesophilic bacterium, as a function of pressure $P$ and temperature $T$. E.coli can grow and divide in a wide range of pressure (1-400atm) and temperature ($23-40^{\circ}$C). For…
Unraveling bacterial strategies for spatial exploration is crucial for understanding the complexity in the organization of life. Bacterial motility determines the spatio-temporal structure of microbial communities, controls infection…
The spatiotemporal oscillations of the Min proteins in the bacterium Escherichia coli play an important role in cell division. A number of different models have been proposed to explain the dynamics from the underlying biochemistry. Here,…
Rod-shaped bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, commonly live forming mounded colonies. They initially grow two-dimensionally on a surface and finally achieve three-dimensional growth. While it was recently reported that three-dimensional…
Cell growth and gene expression, essential elements of all living systems, have long been the focus of biophysical interrogation. Advances in single-cell methods have invigorated theoretical studies into these processes. However, until…
Bistability is considered wide-spread among bacteria and eukaryotic cells, useful e.g. for enzyme induction, bet hedging, and epigenetic switching. However, this phenomenon has mostly been described with deterministic dynamic or well-mixed…
We investigate the dynamics of a colony of crawling, proliferating cells with a minimal, mechanical cell model. The cells consist of two disks, modelling the cell body and a pseudopod, connected by a finite extensible spring. The cells…