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Aging of a Bacterial Colony Enforces the Evolvement of Nondifferentiating Mutants

Bacteria in nature are known to survive for long periods under restricting conditions, mainly by reducing their growth rate and metabolic activity. Here, we uncover a novel strategy utilized by bacterial cells to resist aging by propagating rather than halting division. Bacterial aging was monitored...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hashuel, Rachel, Ben-Yehuda, Sigal
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Microbiology 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6722413/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31481381
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01414-19
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author Hashuel, Rachel
Ben-Yehuda, Sigal
author_facet Hashuel, Rachel
Ben-Yehuda, Sigal
author_sort Hashuel, Rachel
collection PubMed
description Bacteria in nature are known to survive for long periods under restricting conditions, mainly by reducing their growth rate and metabolic activity. Here, we uncover a novel strategy utilized by bacterial cells to resist aging by propagating rather than halting division. Bacterial aging was monitored by inspecting colonies of the Gram-positive soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis, which is capable of differentiating into various cell types under nutrient exhaustion. We revealed that after days of incubation, rejuvenating subpopulations, arrayed over the mother colony, emerged. These subpopulations were found to harbor mutations in a variety of genes, restricting the ability of the cells to differentiate. Surprisingly, even mutations that are not classically designated to developmental pathways, concluded in differentiation deficiency, indicating that multiple paths can reach this same outcome. We provide evidence that the evolved mutants continue to divide under conditions that favor entry into quiescence, hence becoming abundant within the aging population. The occurrence of such nondifferentiating mutants could impact bacterial population dynamics in natural niches.
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spelling pubmed-67224132019-09-11 Aging of a Bacterial Colony Enforces the Evolvement of Nondifferentiating Mutants Hashuel, Rachel Ben-Yehuda, Sigal mBio Research Article Bacteria in nature are known to survive for long periods under restricting conditions, mainly by reducing their growth rate and metabolic activity. Here, we uncover a novel strategy utilized by bacterial cells to resist aging by propagating rather than halting division. Bacterial aging was monitored by inspecting colonies of the Gram-positive soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis, which is capable of differentiating into various cell types under nutrient exhaustion. We revealed that after days of incubation, rejuvenating subpopulations, arrayed over the mother colony, emerged. These subpopulations were found to harbor mutations in a variety of genes, restricting the ability of the cells to differentiate. Surprisingly, even mutations that are not classically designated to developmental pathways, concluded in differentiation deficiency, indicating that multiple paths can reach this same outcome. We provide evidence that the evolved mutants continue to divide under conditions that favor entry into quiescence, hence becoming abundant within the aging population. The occurrence of such nondifferentiating mutants could impact bacterial population dynamics in natural niches. American Society for Microbiology 2019-09-03 /pmc/articles/PMC6722413/ /pubmed/31481381 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01414-19 Text en Copyright © 2019 Hashuel and Ben-Yehuda. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Research Article
Hashuel, Rachel
Ben-Yehuda, Sigal
Aging of a Bacterial Colony Enforces the Evolvement of Nondifferentiating Mutants
title Aging of a Bacterial Colony Enforces the Evolvement of Nondifferentiating Mutants
title_full Aging of a Bacterial Colony Enforces the Evolvement of Nondifferentiating Mutants
title_fullStr Aging of a Bacterial Colony Enforces the Evolvement of Nondifferentiating Mutants
title_full_unstemmed Aging of a Bacterial Colony Enforces the Evolvement of Nondifferentiating Mutants
title_short Aging of a Bacterial Colony Enforces the Evolvement of Nondifferentiating Mutants
title_sort aging of a bacterial colony enforces the evolvement of nondifferentiating mutants
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6722413/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31481381
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01414-19
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