Cellular resource allocation strategies for cell size and shape control in bacteria

• Published in: The FEBS journal Vol. 289; no. 24; pp. 7891 - 7906
• Main Authors: Serbanescu, Diana, Ojkic, Nikola, Banerjee, Shiladitya
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-12-2022
• Subjects: Adaptive control; Bacteria; bacterial growth physiology; Cell culture; Cell morphology; Cell Proliferation; Cell Size; cell size control; coarse‐grained modeling; Composition; Cytology; Environmental conditions; Growth conditions; Growth rate; Macromolecules; Microorganisms; Morphology; Nutrient availability; Optimization; Perturbation; Physiology; Proteome - genetics; proteome allocation; Proteomes; Proteomics; Resource allocation; Shape control; translation; bacterial growth physiology; translation; proteome allocation; cell size control; coarse-grained modeling
• ISSN: 1742-464X; 1742-4658
• DOI: 10.1111/febs.16234

Bacteria are highly adaptive microorganisms that thrive in a wide range of growth conditions via changes in cell morphologies and macromolecular composition. How bacterial morphologies are regulated in diverse environmental conditions is a long‐standing question. Regulation of cell size and shape implies control mechanisms that couple the growth and division of bacteria to their cellular environment and macromolecular composition. In the past decade, simple quantitative laws have emerged that connect cell growth to proteomic composition and the nutrient availability. However, the relationships between cell size, shape, and growth physiology remain challenging to disentangle and unifying models are lacking. In this review, we focus on regulatory models of cell size control that reveal the connections between bacterial cell morphology and growth physiology. In particular, we discuss how changes in nutrient conditions and translational perturbations regulate the cell size, growth rate, and proteome composition. Integrating quantitative models with experimental data, we identify the physiological principles of bacterial size regulation, and discuss the optimization strategies of cellular resource allocation for size control.
How bacterial cells allocate macromolecular resources to optimize growth rate and regulate cell size is a central question in single‐cell bacterial physiology. Here, we review quantitative models for cell size, growth, and shape control based on coarse‐grained partitioning of the cellular proteome. These models reveal how the trade‐offs between cellular resources allocated for translation, division, and metabolism regulate cell morphology and growth in varying nutrient environments.