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Phenotypic Heterogeneity and the Evolution of Bacterial Life Cycles
Most bacteria live in colonies, where they often express different cell types. The ecological significance of these cell types and their evolutionary origin are often unknown. Here, we study the evolution of cell differentiation in the context of surface colonization. We particularly focus on the ev...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4760940/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26894881 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004764 |
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author | van Gestel, Jordi Nowak, Martin A. |
author_facet | van Gestel, Jordi Nowak, Martin A. |
author_sort | van Gestel, Jordi |
collection | PubMed |
description | Most bacteria live in colonies, where they often express different cell types. The ecological significance of these cell types and their evolutionary origin are often unknown. Here, we study the evolution of cell differentiation in the context of surface colonization. We particularly focus on the evolution of a ‘sticky’ cell type that is required for surface attachment, but is costly to express. The sticky cells not only facilitate their own attachment, but also that of non-sticky cells. Using individual-based simulations, we show that surface colonization rapidly evolves and in most cases leads to phenotypic heterogeneity, in which sticky and non-sticky cells occur side by side on the surface. In the presence of regulation, cell differentiation leads to a remarkable set of bacterial life cycles, in which cells alternate between living in the liquid and living on the surface. The dominant life stage is formed by the surface-attached colony that shows many complex features: colonies reproduce via fission and by producing migratory propagules; cells inside the colony divide labour; and colonies can produce filaments to facilitate expansion. Overall, our model illustrates how the evolution of an adhesive cell type goes hand in hand with the evolution of complex bacterial life cycles. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4760940 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-47609402016-03-07 Phenotypic Heterogeneity and the Evolution of Bacterial Life Cycles van Gestel, Jordi Nowak, Martin A. PLoS Comput Biol Research Article Most bacteria live in colonies, where they often express different cell types. The ecological significance of these cell types and their evolutionary origin are often unknown. Here, we study the evolution of cell differentiation in the context of surface colonization. We particularly focus on the evolution of a ‘sticky’ cell type that is required for surface attachment, but is costly to express. The sticky cells not only facilitate their own attachment, but also that of non-sticky cells. Using individual-based simulations, we show that surface colonization rapidly evolves and in most cases leads to phenotypic heterogeneity, in which sticky and non-sticky cells occur side by side on the surface. In the presence of regulation, cell differentiation leads to a remarkable set of bacterial life cycles, in which cells alternate between living in the liquid and living on the surface. The dominant life stage is formed by the surface-attached colony that shows many complex features: colonies reproduce via fission and by producing migratory propagules; cells inside the colony divide labour; and colonies can produce filaments to facilitate expansion. Overall, our model illustrates how the evolution of an adhesive cell type goes hand in hand with the evolution of complex bacterial life cycles. Public Library of Science 2016-02-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4760940/ /pubmed/26894881 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004764 Text en © 2016 van Gestel, Nowak http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article van Gestel, Jordi Nowak, Martin A. Phenotypic Heterogeneity and the Evolution of Bacterial Life Cycles |
title | Phenotypic Heterogeneity and the Evolution of Bacterial Life Cycles |
title_full | Phenotypic Heterogeneity and the Evolution of Bacterial Life Cycles |
title_fullStr | Phenotypic Heterogeneity and the Evolution of Bacterial Life Cycles |
title_full_unstemmed | Phenotypic Heterogeneity and the Evolution of Bacterial Life Cycles |
title_short | Phenotypic Heterogeneity and the Evolution of Bacterial Life Cycles |
title_sort | phenotypic heterogeneity and the evolution of bacterial life cycles |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4760940/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26894881 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004764 |
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