ArticleNucleic acids research2015
Engineered ribosomal RNA operon copy-number variants of E. coli reveal the evolutionary trade-offs shaping rRNA operon number.
Article in Nucleic acids research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers.
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40 citing papers in PubMed, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
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- The distinct cell physiology of Bradyrhizobium at the population and cellular level.BMC microbiology · 2024Article
- Ribosome-binding antibiotics increase bacterial longevity and growth efficiency.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Chromosomal Position of Ribosomal Protein Genes Affects Long-Term Evolution of Vibrio cholerae.mBio · 2023Article
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- rRNA operon multiplicity as a bacterial genome stability insurance policy.Nucleic acids research · 2022Article
- Regulatory perturbations of ribosome allocation in bacteria reshape the growth proteome with a trade-off in adaptation capacity.iScience · 2022Article
- inPOSE: A Flexible Toolbox for Chromosomal Cloning and Amplification of Bacterial Transgenes.Microorganisms · 2022Article
- Evolutionary and Comparative Analysis of Bacterial Nonhomologous End Joining Repair.Genome biology and evolution · 2020Article
- Translational regulation of environmental adaptation in bacteria.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2020Review
- The ecology of heterogeneity: soil bacterial communities and C dynamics.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
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- Trade-offs between gene expression, growth and phenotypic diversity in microbial populations.Current opinion in biotechnology · 2020Review
- The SNAP hypothesis: Chromosomal rearrangements could emerge from positive Selection during Niche Adaptation.PLoS genetics · 2020Article
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- Comparative Genomics of Wild Bee and Flower Isolated Lactobacillus Reveals Potential Adaptation to the Bee Host.Genome biology and evolution · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Ribosomal RNA (rrn) operons, characteristically present in several copies in bacterial genomes (7 in E. coli), play a central role in cellular physiology. We investigated the factors determining the optimal number of rrn operons in E. coli by constructing isogenic variants with 5-10 operons. We found that the total RNA and protein content, as well as the size of the cells reflected the number of rrn operons. While growth parameters showed only minor differences, competition experiments revealed a clear pattern: 7-8 copies were optimal under conditions of fluctuating, occasionally rich nutrient influx and lower numbers were favored in stable, nutrient-limited environments. We found that the advantages of quick adjustment to nutrient availability, rapid growth and economic regulation of ribosome number all contribute to the selection of the optimal rrn operon number. Our results suggest that the wt rrn operon number of E. coli reflects the natural, 'feast and famine' life-style of the bacterium, however, different copy numbers might be beneficial under different environmental conditions. Understanding the impact of the copy number of rrn operons on the fitness of the cell is an important step towards the creation of functional and robust genomes, the ultimate goal of synthetic biology.
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