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Temporal dynamics of bacterial aging and rejuvenation.
Curr Biol. 2011 Nov 8; 21(21):1813-6
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23 Nov 2011
Confirmation
DOI: 10.3410/f.13372012.14742129
This paper is a reanalysis of work published by Stewart et al. {1} and Wang et al. {2} on the subject of bacterial aging. These two previous studies were at odds with one another, with Stewart et al. showing that Escherichia coli cells are susceptible to aging and Wang et al. showing that in microfluidic devices they show no signs of aging. The authors of this paper reanalyze both sets of data and show that actually both aging and rejuvenation occur simultaneously in a population.
This study continues the interesting debate topic of 'do bacteria age?' The authors certainly seem to be answering 'yes' to the above question and, by doing so, bring a spotlight to this often undiscussed topic. This work raises many interesting questions, some of which were pointed out by the authors, such as 'what are the evolutionary pressures that select for aging bacterial cells and why does it raise lifetime fitness?' and 'how does aging differ in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells?' This study also highlights, as have many other papers in the past, that we still know very little about the prokaryotes and that many assumptions we have about them may indeed be incorrect.
References
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Coker J: F1000Prime Recommendation of [Rang CU et al., Curr Biol 2011, 21(21):1813-6]. In F1000Prime, 23 Nov 2011; DOI: 10.3410/f.13372012.14742129. F1000Prime.com/13372012#eval14742129
F1000Prime Recommendations, Dissents and Comments for [Rang CU et al., Curr Biol 2011, 21(21):1813-6]. In F1000Prime, 18 Jun 2013; F1000Prime.com/13372012
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Single-celled organisms dividing by binary fission were thought not to age [1-4]. A 2005 study by Stewart et al. [5] reversed the dogma by demonstrating that Escherichia coli were susceptible to aging. A follow-up study by Wang et al. [6] countered those results by demonstrating that E. coli cells trapped in microfluidic devices are able to sustain robust growth without aging. The present study reanalyzed these conflicting data by applying a population genetic model for aging in bacteria [7]. Our reanalysis showed that in E. coli, as predicted by the model, (1) aging and rejuvenation occurred simultaneously in a population; (2) lineages receiving sequentially the maternal old pole converged to a stable attractor state; (3) lineages receiving sequentially the maternal new pole converged to an equivalent but separate attractor state; (4) cells at the old pole attractor had a longer doubling time than ones at the new pole attractor; and (5) the robust growth state identified by Wang et al. corresponds to our predicted attractor for lineages harboring the maternal old pole. Thus, the previous data, rather than opposing each other, together provide strong evidence for bacterial aging.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.09.018
PMID: 22036179
