ArticleCommunications biology2022
Primordial mimicry induces morphological change in Escherichia coli.
Article in Communications biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Conserved rod-to-spherical shape transitions in Escherichia coli through primordial experimental adaptations.Bioscience reports · 2026Article
- Revealing Cell Envelope Heterogeneity in Two StableInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Extracellular peptide production in Escherichia coli by inducible downregulation of lipoprotein Lpp via MicL sRNA.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2025Article
- Article
- Review
- Cell Sorting-Directed Selection of Bacterial Cells in Bigger Sizes Analyzed by Imaging Flow Cytometry during Experimental Evolution.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Contribution of the genomic and nutritional differentiation to the spatial distribution of bacterial colonies.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Global coordination of the mutation and growth rates across the genetic and nutritional variety inFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The morphology of primitive cells has been the subject of extensive research. A spherical form was commonly presumed in prebiotic studies but lacked experimental evidence in living cells. Whether and how the shape of living cells changed are unclear. Here we exposed the rod-shaped bacterium Escherichia coli to a resource utilization regime mimicking a primordial environment. Oleate was given as an easy-to-use model prebiotic nutrient, as fatty acid vesicles were likely present on the prebiotic Earth and might have been used as an energy resource. Six evolutionary lineages were generated under glucose-free but oleic acid vesicle (OAV)-rich conditions. Intriguingly, fitness increase was commonly associated with the morphological change from rod to sphere and the decreases in both the size and the area-to-volume ratio of the cell. The changed cell shape was conserved in either OAVs or glucose, regardless of the trade-offs in carbon utilization and protein abundance. Highly differentiated mutations present in the genome revealed two distinct strategies of adaption to OAV-rich conditions, i.e., either directly targeting the cell wall or not. The change in cell morphology of Escherichia coli for adapting to fatty acid availability supports the assumption of the primitive spherical form.
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