ArticleMolecular systems biology2021
Suboptimal resource allocation in changing environments constrains response and growth in bacteria.
Article in Molecular systems biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sodium ion stress accelerates cell lysis inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Bacterial chromosomal gene positioning is likely shaped by selection on both mean and growth-dependent expression.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Twenty-Five Years of the Environmental Stress Response and the Enduring Power of Yeast in Stress Biology.Yeast (Chichester, England) · 2026Review
- Fitness advantage of sequential metabolic strategies emerges from community interactions in strongly fluctuating environments.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- The importance of regulated resource reallocation during dynamic environmental shifts in yeast.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Maintenance of cytoplasmic and membrane densities shapes cellular geometry in Escherichia coli.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Emergence of alternative states in a synthetic human gut microbial community.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Reinforcement learning for adaptive control of phenotypically heterogeneous bacterial populations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Naphthoquinone preferentially pairs with non-proton-pumping NADH dehydrogenase for respiratory electron transport.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- A mismatch between slow protein synthesis and fast environmental fluctuations determines tradeoffs in bacterial proteome allocation strategies.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Environmental matrix and moisture influence soil microbial phenotypes in a simplified porous media incubation.mSystems · 2025Article
- Physics of swimming and its fitness cost determine strategies of bacterial investment in flagellar motility.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Bacterial volatile organic compound specialists in the phycosphere.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Single-cell data reveal heterogeneity of investment in ribosomes across a bacterial population.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Regulated resource reallocation is transcriptionally hard wired into the yeast stress response.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Plasmid-encoded phosphatase RapP enhances cell growth in non-domesticated Bacillus subtilis strains.Nature communications · 2024Article
- How DoesACS synthetic biology · 2024Article
- Environmental memory alters the fitness effects of adaptive mutations in fluctuating environments.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Microbial life in slow and stopped lanes.Trends in microbiology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
To respond to fluctuating conditions, microbes typically need to synthesize novel proteins. As this synthesis relies on sufficient biosynthetic precursors, microbes must devise effective response strategies to manage depleting precursors. To better understand these strategies, we investigate the active response of Escherichia coli to changes in nutrient conditions, connecting transient gene expression to growth phenotypes. By synthetically modifying gene expression during changing conditions, we show how the competition by genes for the limited protein synthesis capacity constrains cellular response. Despite this constraint cells substantially express genes that are not required, trapping them in states where precursor levels are low and the genes needed to replenish the precursors are outcompeted. Contrary to common modeling assumptions, our findings highlight that cells do not optimize growth under changing environments but rather exhibit hardwired response strategies that may have evolved to promote fitness in their native environment. The constraint and the suboptimality of the cellular response uncovered provide a conceptual framework relevant for many research applications, from the prediction of evolution to the improvement of gene circuits in biotechnology.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.