Mechanisms of Cell Size Regulation in Slow-GrowingEscherichia coliCells: Discriminating Models Beyond the Adder

Abstract

AbstractUnder ideal conditions,Escherichia colicells divide after adding a fixed cell size, a strategy known as theadder. This concept applies to various microbes and is often explained as the division that occurs after a certain number of stages, associated with the accumulation of precursor proteins at a rate proportional to cell size. However, under poor media conditions,E. colicells exhibit a different size regulation. They are smaller and follow asizer-likedivision strategy where the added size is inversely proportional to the size at birth. We explore three potential causes for this deviation: precursor protein degradation, nonlinear accumulation rate, and a threshold size termed thecommitment size. These models fit mean trends but predict different distributions given the birth size. To validate these models, we used the Akaike information criterion and compared them to open datasets of slow-growingE. colicells in different media. the degradation model could explain the division strategy for media where cells are larger, while the commitment size model could account for smaller cells. The power-law model, finally, better fits the data at intermediate regimes.