Cell size statistics in cell lineages and population snapshots with different growth regimes and division strategies

Abstract

Growing populations of bacteria control their growth and division reaching narrow distributions of cellsizes. In this paper we explored how different combinations of growth regimes and division mechanisms lead to different cell-size statistics in these populations. Deterministic and stochastic modeling were used to describe the size distribution of a population of cells that is observed from two different perspectives: as single cell lineages, i.e. random paths in the lineage tree, or as snapshots, at given times, of a population in which all descendants of a single ancestor cell are observed. Our time-dependent approaches allowed us to obtain both the transient dynamics and the steady state values for the main statistical moments of the cell-size distribution. Also, we established mathematical relationships among the statistics in the two considered perspectives, thus improving our knowledge of how cells control their growth and proliferation.

Cell size distribution of lineage data: Analytic results and parameter inference

“…(2014) ; Nieto-Acuna et al. (2019) ; Totis et al. (2020a) , the authors focus on the special case of only one cell cycle stage ( N = 1) and the majority of previous papers focus on the special case of symmetric division ( p = 0.5) Kohram et al.…”

“…collected using mother machines, can vary considerably from those obtained from population snapshot data, e.g. collected using flow cytometry Thomas (2018); García-García et al (2019); Totis et al (2020a). In fact, differences between these two types of measurements are also observable in protein and mRNA count statistics Thomas (2017); Beentjes et al (2020).…”

Stochastic reaction networks in dynamic compartment populations

“…Similar models of cell division have been considered in ref. 19 , with the difference that the factor was considered to increase deterministically. Additionally, we introduce a negative feedback mechanism, which causes stem cells to differentiate at a rate that increases with their own abundance.…”

“…The relevance of noise in biological systems has led to an increased interest in stochastic population balance modeling (12,18,19). A few recent elegant studies, for instance, show how cell proliferation can be coupled with stochastic cell internal dynamics (20,21).…”

Cell size distribution of lineage data: analytic results and parameter inference

“…collected using mother machines, can vary considerably from those obtained from population snapshot data, e.g. collected using flow cytometry [12][13][14]. In fact, differences between these two types of measurements are also observable in protein and mRNA count statistics [15][16][17].…”