Damage dynamics and the role of chance in the timing of E. coli cell death

Yifan Yang (), Omer Karin, Avi Mayo, Xiaohu Song, Peipei Chen, Ana L. Santos, Ariel B. Lindner and Uri Alon ()
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Yifan Yang: Weizmann Institute of Science
Omer Karin: Weizmann Institute of Science
Avi Mayo: Weizmann Institute of Science
Xiaohu Song: Université de Paris - INSERM Unit 1284, Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI)
Peipei Chen: Université de Paris - INSERM Unit 1284, Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI)
Ana L. Santos: Université de Paris - INSERM Unit 1284, Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI)
Ariel B. Lindner: Université de Paris - INSERM Unit 1284, Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI)
Uri Alon: Weizmann Institute of Science

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Genetically identical cells in the same stressful condition die at different times. The origin of this stochasticity is unclear; it may arise from different initial conditions that affect the time of demise, or from a stochastic damage accumulation mechanism that erases the initial conditions and instead amplifies noise to generate different lifespans. To address this requires measuring damage dynamics in individual cells over the lifespan, but this has rarely been achieved. Here, we used a microfluidic device to measure membrane damage in 635 carbon-starved Escherichia coli cells at high temporal resolution. We find that initial conditions of damage, size or cell-cycle phase do not explain most of the lifespan variation. Instead, the data points to a stochastic mechanism in which noise is amplified by a rising production of damage that saturates its own removal. Surprisingly, the relative variation in damage drops with age: cells become more similar to each other in terms of relative damage, indicating increasing determinism with age. Thus, chance erases initial conditions and then gives way to increasingly deterministic dynamics that dominate the lifespan distribution.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37930-x

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