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Microbial individuality: how single-cell heterogeneity enables population level strategies.


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Authors

Martins, Bruno MC 
Locke, James CW 

Abstract

Much of our knowledge of microbial life is only a description of average population behaviours, but modern technologies provide a more inclusive view and reveal that microbes also have individuality. It is now acknowledged that isogenic cell-to-cell heterogeneity is common across organisms and across different biological processes. This heterogeneity can be regulated and functional, rather than just reflecting tolerance to noisy biochemistry. Here, we review recent advances in our understanding of microbial heterogeneity, with an emphasis on the pervasiveness of heterogeneity, the mechanisms that sustain it, and how heterogeneity enables collective function.

Description

Keywords

Bacteria, Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial, Microbiological Phenomena, Phenotype, Single-Cell Analysis

Journal Title

Curr Opin Microbiol

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1369-5274
1879-0364

Volume Title

24

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
European Research Council (338060)
The research has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement 338060. The work in the Locke laboratory is also supported by a fellowship from the Gatsby Foundation (GAT3273/GLC).