Functional phenotypic heterogeneity within stressed clonal populations of Escherichia coli

While bacteria often become exposed to inimical conditions, the exact cellular impact and further consequences of such stressful encounters tend to remain elusive. In order to better understand bacterial inactivation and resuscitation dynamics, this dissertation ventured into quantitative live cell biology approaches to document and dissect the heterogeneous behavior within stressed bacterial populations at single-cell resolution. More specifically, using Escherichia coli as a bacterial model organism that is also representative for a number of foodborne pathogens, we focused on the effects of heat and high hydrostatic pressure stress, as well as on the management and physiological impact of protein aggregates as intracellular damage depots. Our results illustrate the potential of stress to generate a sometimes functional phenotypic heterogeneity within isogenic E. coli populations.

Publication year:2016

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