{"id":2017,"date":"2015-01-08T06:26:36","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T06:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=2017"},"modified":"2015-01-08T06:26:36","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T06:26:36","slug":"how-bacteria-control-their-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/how-bacteria-control-their-size\/","title":{"rendered":"How Bacteria Control Their Size"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Image<\/a>
Image Credit: CDC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scientists have traditionally studied bacteria in large numbers, not individually. Working with tens of millions of cells in a culture flask, they tracked their growth by looking at how much the cells dimmed light passing through a tube.<\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Using this method, scientists learned that populations of bacteria grow exponentially, doubling in mass at regular time intervals. And so, not unreasonably, they assumed that individual cells would do the same, dividing only when they have doubled in size.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
In the Dec. 24 online issue of Current Biology a group of scientists led by Suckjoon Jun of the University of California-San Diego, and including Petra Levin, PhD, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, report that this hypothesis was incorrect.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cEven though on average it is true that mass doubles,\u201d Levin said, \u201cwhen you look at individual cells it becomes apparent that something else is going on.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Instead of examining populations of cells growing in a flask or test tube, the Jun group instead used a microfluidics device called a \u201cmother machine\u201d to follow hundreds of thousands of individual cells from birth to division.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
They found that rather than doubling in size every generation, each cell added the same volume (or mass; the term reflects the measurement technique). Crucially a cell that was small added the same volume as a cell that was large.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Why is this the rule? \u201cAlthough this might seem counter-intuitive, over many generations this rule ensures that cells in a population maintain a constant size,\u201d Levin said.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cThis study really shows how new technologies, in this case the development of the \u2018mother machine\u2019 to visualize single bacteria in real time, can lead to new and unexpected answers to old problems,\u201d Levin said.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cPinning down the growth rule is important,\u201d she added, \u201cbecause it provides clues to the underlying biochemical mechanism that ultimately controls growth. The mechanism is probably essential \u2014 or nearly so \u2014 and thus good target for new antimicrobials.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cSurprisingly little is known about biological size control in general,\u201d Levin said.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cWhy are we the size we are? Why are our organs the size they are? Why are the cells in those organs a stereotypical size? What regulates that?\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cWe take all this for granted,\u201d she said, \u201cbut really, very little of it is understood.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Source:\u00a0WUSTL<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists have traditionally studied bacteria in large numbers, not individually. Working with tens of millions of cells in a culture flask, they tracked their growth by looking at how much the cells dimmed light passing through a tube. \u00a0 Using this method, scientists learned that populations of bacteria grow exponentially, doubling in mass at regular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",474,523,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC-271x300.jpg",271,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",474,523,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",474,523,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",474,523,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",474,523,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",474,523,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",474,523,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",474,523,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",474,523,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",444,490,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",326,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",59,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",474,523,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",87,96,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CDC.jpg",150,166,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}