Open AccessGeneral quantitative relations linking cell growth and the cell cycle in Escherichia coli
Author(s) -
Hao Zheng,
Yang Bai,
Meiling Jiang,
Taku A. Tokuyasu,
Xiongliang Huang,
Fajun Zhong,
Yuqian Wu,
Xiongfei Fu,
Nancy Kleckner,
Terence Hwa,
Chenli Liu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nature microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.305
H-Index - 79
ISSN - 2058-5276
DOI - 10.1038/s41564-020-0717-x
Subject(s) - cell cycle , cell growth , escherichia coli , growth rate , cell division , biology , cell , microbiology and biotechnology , bacterial growth , doubling time , biophysics , genetics , bacteria , mathematics , gene , geometry
Growth laws emerging from studies of cell populations provide essential constraints on the global mechanisms that coordinate cell growth 1-3 . The foundation of bacterial cell cycle studies relies on two interconnected dogmas that were proposed more than 50 years ago-the Schaechter-Maaloe-Kjeldgaard growth law that relates cell mass to growth rate 1 and Donachie's hypothesis of a growth-rate-independent initiation mass 4 . These dogmas spurred many efforts to understand their molecular bases and physiological consequences 5-14 . Although they are generally accepted in the fast-growth regime, that is, for doubling times below 1 h, extension of these dogmas to the slow-growth regime has not been consistently achieved. Here, through a quantitative physiological study of Escherichia coli cell cycles over an extensive range of growth rates, we report that neither dogma holds in either the slow- or fast-growth regime. In their stead, linear relations between the cell mass and the rate of chromosome replication-segregation were found across the range of growth rates. These relations led us to propose an integral-threshold model in which the cell cycle is controlled by a licensing process, the rate of which is related in a simple way to chromosomal dynamics. These results provide a quantitative basis for predictive understanding of cell growth-cell cycle relationships.