Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 107, Issue 9, Pages 4236-4241Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0908725107
Keywords
cell cycle; Chlorella vulgaris; chemostat; Kuramoto model; population cycles
Categories
Funding
- Volkswagen Foundation
- German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
- James S. McDonnell Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Complex dynamics, such as population cycles, can arise when the individual members of a population become synchronized. However, it is an open question how readily and through which mechanisms synchronization-driven cycles can occur in unstructured microbial populations. In experimental chemostats we studied large populations (> 10(9) cells) of unicellular phytoplankton that displayed regular, inducible and reproducible population oscillations. Measurements of cell size distributions revealed that progression through the mitotic cycle was synchronized with the population cycles. A mathematical model that accounts for both the cell cycle and population-level processes suggests that cycles occur because individual cells become synchronized by interacting with one another through their common nutrient pool. An external perturbation by direct manipulation of the nutrient availability resulted in phase resetting, unmasking intrinsic oscillations and producing a transient collective cycle as the individuals gradually drift apart. Our study indicates a strong connection between complex within-cell processes and population dynamics, where synchronized cell cycles of unicellular phytoplankton provide sufficient population structure to cause small-amplitude oscillations at the population level.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available