Journal
NATURE MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 1, Issue 9, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NMICROBIOL.2016.98
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Funding
- University of Namur
- Belgian Fund for Industrial and Agricultural Research Associate (FRIA)
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Stress response to fluctuating environments often implies a time-consuming reprogramming of gene expression. In bacteria, the so-called bet hedging strategy, which promotes phenotypic stochasticity within a cell population, is the only fast stress response described so far(1). Here, we show that Caulobacter crescentus asymmetrical cell division allows an immediate bimodal response to a toxic metals-rich environment by allocating specific defence strategies to morphologically and functionally distinct siblings. In this context, a motile swarmer cell favours negative chemotaxis to flee from a copper source, whereas a sessile stalked sibling engages a ready-to-use PcoAB copper homeostasis system, providing evidence of a prompt stress response through intrinsic bacterial dimorphism.
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