Abstract
Expression profiles of genes related to stress responses, substrate assimilation, acetate metabolism, and biosynthesis were obtained by monitoring growth of Escherichia coli MG1655 in Luria–Bertani (LB) medium with transcriptional microarrays. Superimposing gene expression profiles on a plot of specific growth rate demonstrates that the cells pass through four distinct physiological states during fermentation before entering stationary phase. Each of these states can be characterized by specific patterns of substrate utilization and cellular biosynthesis corresponding to the nutrient status of the medium. These data allow the growth phases of the classical microbial growth curve to be redefined in terms of the physiological states and environmental changes commonly occurring during bacterial growth in batch culture on LB medium.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander DM, Damerau K, St John AC (1993) Carbohydrate uptake genes in Escherichia coli are induced by carbon starvation. Curr Microbiol 27:335–340
Azam TA, Iwata A, Nishimura A, Ueda S, Ishihama A (1999) Growth phase-dependent variation in protein composition of the Escherichia coli nucleoid. J Bacteriol 181:6361–6370
Baev MV, Baev D, Jancso Radek A, Campbell JW (2006a) Growth of Escherichia coli MG1655 on LB medium: monitoring utilization of sugars, alcohols and organic acids with transcriptional microarrays. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (in press). DOI 10.1007/s00253-006-0317-6
Baev MV, Baev D, Jancso Radek A, Campbell JW (2006b) Growth of Escherichia coli MG1655 on LB medium: monitoring utilization of amino acids, peptides, and nucleotides with transcriptional microarrays. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (in press). DOI 10.1007/s00253-005-0310-5
Brown TDK, Jones-Mortimer MC, Kornberg HL (1977) The enzymic interconversion of acetate and acetyl-coenzyme A in Escherichia coli. J Gen Microbiol 102:327–336
Brown L, Gentry D, Elliott T, Cashel M (2002) DksA affects ppGpp induction of RpoS at a translational level. J Bacteriol 184:4455–4465
Doelle HW, Ewings KN, Hollywood NW (1982) Regulation of glucose metabolism in bacterial systems. Adv Biochem Eng 23:1–35
Egli T (1995) The ecological and physiological significance of the growth of heterotrophic microorganisms with mixtures of substrates. Adv Microb Ecol 14:305–386
Ferenci T (1999) ‘Growth of bacterial cultures’ 50 years on: towards an uncertainty principle instead of constants in bacterial growth kinetics. Res Microbiol 150:431–438
Ferenci T (2001) Hungry bacteria—definition and properties of a nutritional state. Environ Microbiol 3:605–611
Fisher D, Teich A, Neubauer P, Hengge-Aronis R (1998) The general stress sigma factor σs of Escherichia coli is induced during shift from glucose to lactose. J Bacteriol 180:6203–6206
Forst S, Delgado J, Rampersaud A, Inouye M (1990) In vivo phosphorylation of OmpR, the transcription activator of the ompF and ompC genes in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol 172:3473–3477
Harder W, Dijkhuizen L (1982) Strategies of mixed substrate utilization in microorganisms. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 297:459–480
Harder W, Dijkhuizen L (1983) Physiological responses to nutrient limitation. Annu Rev Microbiol 37:1–23
Harder W, Dijkhuizen L, Veldkamp H (1984) Environmental regulation of microbial metabolism. In: Kelly DP, Carr NG (eds) The microbe 1984. Part II. Procaryotes and eukaryotes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 51–95
Hengge-Aronis R (2002) Signal transduction and regulatory mechanisms involved in control of the σs (RpoS) subunit of RNA polymerase. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 66:373–395
Huisman GW, Siegle DA, Zambrano MM, Kolter R (1996) Morphological and physiological changes during stationary phase. In: Neidhardt FC, Curtis R III, Ingraham JL, Lin ECC, Low KB, Magasanik B, Reznikoff WS, Riley M, Schaschter M, Umbarger HE (eds) Escherichia coli and Salmonella: cellular and molecular biology, 2nd edn. ASM, Washington, DC, pp 1672–1682
Iyer V, Eisen MB, Ross DT, Shuler G, Moore T, Lee JCF, Trent JM, Staudt LM, Hudson J Jr, Boguski MS, Lashkari D, Shalon D, Botstein D, Brown PO (1999) The transcriptional program in the response of human fibroblasts to serum. Science 283:83–87
Kakuda H, Hosono K, Shiroishi K, Ichihara S (1994) Identification and characterization of the ackA (acetate kinase A)-pta (phosphotransacetylase) operon and complementation analysis of acetate utilization by an ackA-pta deletion mutant of Escherichia coli. J Biochem (Tokyo) 116:916–922
Kleman GL, Strohl WR (1994) Acetate metabolism by Escherichia coli in high-cell-density fermentation. Appl Environ Microbiol 60:3952–3958
Kovarova-Kovar K, Egli T (1998) Growth kinetics of suspended microbial cells: from single-substrate-controlled growth to mixed-substrate kinetics. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 62:646–666
Kumari S, Tishel R, Eisenbach M, Wolfe AJ (1995) Cloning, characterization, and functional expression of acs, the gene which encodes acetyl coenzyme A synthetase in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol 177:2878–2886
Kumari S, Beatty CM, Browning DF, Busby SJ, Simel EJ, Hovel-Miner G, Wolfe AJ (2000) Regulation of acetyl coenzyme A synthetase in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol 182:4173–4179
Lendenmann U, Snozzi M, Egli T (1996) Kinetics of the simultaneous utilization of sugar mixtures by Escherichia coli in continuous culture. Appl Environ Microbiol 62:1493–1499
Lendenmann U, Snozzi M, Egli T (2000) Growth kinetics of Escherichia coli with galactose and several other sugars in carbon-limited chemostat culture. Can J Microbiol 46:72–80
Loewen PC, Hu B, Strutinsky J, Sparling R (1998) Regulation in the rpoS regulon of Escherichia coli. Can J Microbiol 44:707–717
Luli GW, Strohl WR (1990) Comparison of growth, acetate production, and acetate inhibition of Escherichia coli strains in batch and fed-batch fermentations. Appl Environ Microbiol 56:1004–1011
Matin A (1996) Role of alternate sigma factors in starvation protein synthesis-novel mechanisms of catabolite repression. Res Microbiol 147:494–505
Ninfa AJ (1996) Regulation of gene transcription by extracellular stimuli. In: Neidhardt FC, Curtis R III, Ingraham JL, Lin ECC, Low KB, Magasanik B, Reznikoff WS, Riley M, Schaschter M, Umbarger HE (eds) Escherichia coli and Salmonella: cellular and molecular biology, 2nd edn. ASM, Washington, DC, pp 1246–1262
Nystrom T (1994) The glucose-starvation stimulon of Escherichia coli: induced and repressed synthesis of enzymes of central metabolic pathways and role of acetyl phosphate in gene expression and starvation survival. Mol Microbiol 12:833–843
Poindexter JS (1987) Bacterial responses to nutrient limitation. In: Fletcher M, Gray TRG, Jones JG (eds) Ecology of microbial communities. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 283–317
Prüß BM (1998) Acetyl phosphate and the phosphorylation of OmpR are involved in the regulation of the cell division rate in Escherichia coli. Arch Microbiol 170:141–146
Prüß BM, Wolfe AJ (1994) Regulation of acetyl phosphate synthesis and degradation, and the control of flagellar expression in Escherichia coli. Mol Microbiol 12:973–984
Prüß BM, Nelms JM, Park C, Wolfe AJ (1994) Mutations in NADH: ubiquinone oxidoreductase of Escherichia coli affect growth on mixed amino acids. J Bacteriol 176:2143–2150
Selinger DW, Cheung KJ, Mei R, Johansson EM, Richmond CS, Blattner FR, Lockhart DJ, Church GM (2000) RNA expression analysis using a 30 base pair resolution Escherichia coli genome array. Nat Biotechnol 18:1262–1268
Shin S, Park C (1995) Modulation of flagellar expression in Escherichia coli by acetyl phosphate and the osmoregulator OmpR. J Bacteriol 177:4696–4702
Tempest DW, Neijssel OM (1978). Eco-physiological aspects of microbial growth in aerobic nutrient-limited environments. Adv Microb Ecol 2:105–153
Wanner U, Egli T (1990) Dynamics of microbial growth and cell composition in batch culture. FEMS Microbiol Rev 6:19–43
Wanner BL, Wilmes-Riesenberg MR (1992) Involvement of phosphotransacetylase, acetate kinase, and acetyl phosphate synthesis in control of the phosphate regulon in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol 174:2124–2130
Webb C, Moreno M, Wilmes-Riesenberg M, Curtis R III, Foster JW (1999) Effects of DksA and ClpP protease on sigma S product and virulence in Salmonella typhimurium. Mol Microbiol 34:112–123
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Baev, M.V., Baev, D., Radek, A.J. et al. Growth of Escherichia coli MG1655 on LB medium: determining metabolic strategy with transcriptional microarrays. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 71, 323–328 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-006-0392-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-006-0392-8