Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Daily Transfers, Archiving Populations, and Measuring Fitness in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli
Published on: August 18, 2023
Correlated phenotypic transitions to competence in bacterial colonies
Inbal Hecht1, Eshel Ben-Jacob, Herbert Levine
1Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
Abstract:
Genetic competence is a phenotypic state of a bacterial cell in which it is capable of importing DNA, presumably to improve survival under stress. Motivated by several colony-level known responses, we present a model for the influence of quorum sensing on the transition to competence of B. Subtilis. Coupling to the external signal creates an effective inhibitory mechanism, which results in anticorrelation between the cycles of adjacent cells. We show that this is consistent with recent experimental measurements and propose measurement methods to verify the role of quorum-sensing signals.
Related Concept Videos
Evolution of New Traits in Microbes
Coordination of Gene Expression Processes in Bacteria
Bacterial Growth Curve
Transduction
Regulation of Bacterial Virulence
Chemotaxis in E. coli

