Systematic Perturbation of Cytoskeletal Function Reveals a Linear Scaling Relationship between Cell Geometry and Fitness

• Published in: Cell reports (Cambridge) Vol. 9; no. 4; pp. 1528 - 1537
• Main Authors: Monds, Russell D., Lee, Timothy K., Colavin, Alexandre, Ursell, Tristan, Quan, Selwyn, Cooper, Tim F., Huang, Kerwyn Casey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 20.11.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Alleles; Clone Cells; Cytoskeleton - metabolism; Directed Molecular Evolution; Environment; Escherichia coli - cytology; Escherichia coli - genetics; Escherichia coli - metabolism; Escherichia coli Proteins - metabolism; Genetic Fitness; Mutation

Diversification of cell size is hypothesized to have occurred through a process of evolutionary optimization, but direct demonstrations of causal relationships between cell geometry and fitness are lacking. Here, we identify a mutation from a laboratory-evolved bacterium that dramatically increases...