ArticleMolecular systems biology2014
Phenotypic bistability in Escherichia coli's central carbon metabolism.
Article in Molecular systems biology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 140 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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140 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Guideline
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- Metabolic control of porin permeability influences antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
- Heterogeneity in responses to ribosome-targeting antibiotics mediated by bacterial RNA repair.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Phenotypic heterogeneity in lag reflects an evolutionarily stable bet-hedging strategy.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Implications of gene expression heterogeneity in the interplay between acquired resistance and bacterial metabolism.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Increased distribution of carbon metabolic flux during de novo cytidine biosynthesis via attenuation of the acetic acid metabolism pathway in Escherichia coli.Microbial cell factories · 2025Article
- Highly multiplexed spatial transcriptomics in bacteria.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Single-cell data reveal heterogeneity of investment in ribosomes across a bacterial population.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Diversification of single-cell growth dynamics under starvation influences subsequent reproduction in a clonal bacterial population.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Vitamin auxotrophies shape microbial community assembly on model marine particles.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- (p)ppGpp mediates persister formation inFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
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- Insights into the regulatory mechanisms and application prospects of the transcription factor Cra.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2024Review
- The ability in managing reactive oxygen species affectsmSystems · 2024Article
- Impact of fleQ Deficiency on Resource Allocation and Heterologous Gene Expression in Pseudomonas putida Across Various Growth Media.Microbial biotechnology · 2024Article
80 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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4 authors.
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Abstract
Fluctuations in intracellular molecule abundance can lead to distinct, coexisting phenotypes in isogenic populations. Although metabolism continuously adapts to unpredictable environmental changes, and although bistability was found in certain substrate-uptake pathways, central carbon metabolism is thought to operate deterministically. Here, we combine experiment and theory to demonstrate that a clonal Escherichia coli population splits into two stochastically generated phenotypic subpopulations after glucose-gluconeogenic substrate shifts. Most cells refrain from growth, entering a dormant persister state that manifests as a lag phase in the population growth curve. The subpopulation-generating mechanism resides at the metabolic core, overarches the metabolic and transcriptional networks, and only allows the growth of cells initially achieving sufficiently high gluconeogenic flux. Thus, central metabolism does not ensure the gluconeogenic growth of individual cells, but uses a population-level adaptation resulting in responsive diversification upon nutrient changes.
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