Single cell ecology

Abstract

Cells are the building blocks of life, from single-celled microbes through to multi-cellular organisms. To understand a multitude of biological processes we need to understand how cells behave, how they interact with each other and how they respond to their environment. The use of new methodologies is changing the way we study cells allowing us to study them on minute scales and in unprecedented detail. These same methods are allowing researchers to begin to sample the vast diversity of microbes that dominate natural environments. The aim of this special issue is to bring together research and perspectives on the application of new approaches to understand the biological properties of cells, including how they interact with other biological entities. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Single cell ecology’.

Nutrient and salt depletion synergistically boosts glucose metabolism in individual bacteria

“…corroborating the view that cell-to-cell differences are ubiquitous within microbial populations [67,[76][77][78] and that there is substantial heterogeneity in the accumulation of metabolites [5,44,74,75,[79][80][81][82][83][84] or antimicrobials [40,85,86].…”

Single-cell microfluidics facilitates the rapid quantification of antibiotic accumulation in Gram-negative bacteria

“…Future studies on the differences in accumulation between cells in different physiological states may also contribute towards a better understanding of antibiotic tolerance; indeed, it is known that growth conditions play an important role in the development of tolerance to various antibiotic classes. 40 The technique presented in this paper offers a platform for the investigation of these observations in the context of differential drug and metabolite uptake, [55][56][57][58][59][60] complementing efforts to characterize phenotypic heterogeneity such as antibiotic tolerance and persistence. 9,[41][42][43][44] Using biophysical experimental model systems, we and others have previously shown in vitro that porins such as OmpF facilitate fluoroquinolone transport across the outer membrane, 5,32 and that fluoroquinolones also diffuse freely across phospholipid bilayers such as those found in the cytoplasmic membrane.…”

Fast bacterial growth reduces antibiotic accumulation and efficacy

“…Phenotypic heterogeneity between genetically identical cells has been observed across all three domains of life ( Richards et al, 2019 ; Ackermann, 2015 ). This heterogeneity is characterised by individual cells that display differing phenotypic traits ( Golding et al, 2005 ; Lidstrom and Konopka, 2010 ) and permit genotypes to persist in fluctuating environments ( Ackermann, 2015 ).…”