Optimality and sub-optimality in a bacterial growth law.

Towbin, Benjamin D.; Korem, Yael; Bren, Anat; Doron, Shany; Sorek, Rotem; Alon, Uri (2017). Optimality and sub-optimality in a bacterial growth law. Nature Communications, 8(14123), p. 14123. Springer Nature 10.1038/ncomms14123

Preview

Text ncomms14123.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY). Download (656kB) | Preview

Organisms adjust their gene expression to improve fitness in diverse environments. But finding the optimal expression in each environment presents a challenge. We ask how good cells are at finding such optima by studying the control of carbon catabolism genes in Escherichia coli. Bacteria show a growth law: growth rate on different carbon sources declines linearly with the steady-state expression of carbon catabolic genes. We experimentally modulate gene expression to ask if this growth law always maximizes growth rate, as has been suggested by theory. We find that the growth law is optimal in many conditions, including a range of perturbations to lactose uptake, but provides sub-optimal growth on several other carbon sources. Combining theory and experiment, we genetically re-engineer E. coli to make sub-optimal conditions into optimal ones and vice versa. We conclude that the carbon growth law is not always optimal, but represents a practical heuristic that often works but sometimes fails.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

115 since deposited on 14 Jan 2021
14 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item