Extracting environment-independent cellular growth properties based on phenomenological growth laws

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25711008
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Biophysics
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Wakamoto Yuichi 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 准教授 (30517884)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 1細胞計測 / 細胞情報・動態 / 成長・分裂

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research project, we aimed to unravel the phenomenological laws that impose the constraints on growth and death of individual cells under constant culture conditions, using E. coli, S. pombe, and L1210 lymphocytic leukemia cells as model organisms. The study revealed the linear relation between the means and the variances of E. coli generation time, which might determine the maximum bound of growth rate of this organism in any constant environments. Long-term single-cell measurement of S. pombe revealed the linear relation between division rate and death rate in constant environments, which demonstrates the trade-off that faster growth is linked with even higher death rates at the single-cell level. We also developed a new microfluidic device for long-term single-cell measurements of L1210 cells.

Free Research Field

生物物理学