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BACTERIAL PHYSIOLOGY

Growth at best and worst of times

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It has been assumed that bacteria adapt to nutrient limitation by adjusting the number of ribosomes, no matter what they are being starved for. Instead, two recent studies show that Escherichia coli uses different approaches depending on whether its growth is limited by the availability of carbon, nitrogen or phosphate.

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Fig. 1: The three ways to slow bacterial growth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bacterial Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Biology, University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland

    Katarzyna Potrykus

  2. Intramural Research Program, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Michael Cashel

Authors
  1. Katarzyna Potrykus
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  2. Michael Cashel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Cashel.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Potrykus, K., Cashel, M. Growth at best and worst of times. Nat Microbiol 3, 862–863 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-018-0207-6

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