Suchergebnisse

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this record ; Data availability; All RNA sequencing data and proteomics data is available in Supplementary Data 1–4. Exact p values, where shown on Figs. 1–5, are available in Supplementary Data 5. The source data underlying Figs. 1–5 are provided as Supplementary Data 6. Any other relevant data are available upon reasonable request. ; The interaction between a cell and its environment shapes fundamental intracellular processes such as cellular metabolism. In most cases growth rate is treated as a proximal metric for understanding the cellular metabolic status. However, changes in growth rate might not reflect metabolic variations in individuals responding to environmental fluctuations. Here we use single-cell microfluidics-microscopy combined with transcriptomics, proteomics and mathematical modelling to quantify the accumulation of glucose within Escherichia coli cells. In contrast to the current consensus, we reveal that environmental conditions which are comparatively unfavourable for growth, where both nutrients and salinity are depleted, increase glucose accumulation rates in individual bacteria and population subsets. We find that these changes in metabolic function are underpinned by variations at the translational and posttranslational level but not at the transcriptional level and are not dictated by changes in cell size. The metabolic response-characteristics identified greatly advance our fundamental understanding of the interactions between bacteria and their environment and have important ramifications when investigating cellular processes where salinity plays an important role. ; Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) ; Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) ; Medical Research Council (MRC) ; Royal Society ; QUEX Initiator grant ; European Union Horizon 2020 ; Gordon and Betty and Gordon Moore Foundation ; Wellcome Trust