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Memory in microbes: quantifying history-dependent behavior in a bacterium.

Denise M Wolf1, Lisa Fontaine-Bodin, Ilka Bischofs

  • 1Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA. dmwolf@lbl.gov

Plos One
|March 8, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Bacteria exhibit memory, remembering past environmental exposures. This study quantifies microbial memory using an information-theory framework, revealing history-dependent behaviors in Bacillus subtilis.

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Systems Biology
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • While memory is typically linked to higher organisms, bacteria possess complex regulatory networks capable of multi-stable behaviors.
  • Environmental history influences bacterial responses to current conditions, suggesting a form of cellular memory.
  • This history-dependent behavior may be actively regulated by bacteria, conferring a fitness advantage in evolutionary contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose and develop a conceptual framework for quantifying memory persistence and information encoding in microbial history-dependent dynamics.
  • To establish a phenomenological measure of cellular memory independent of specific underlying mechanisms.
  • To apply this framework to Bacillus subtilis to assess its memory capacity across different cell histories.

Main Methods:

  • Development of an information-theory based framework to measure memory persistence and information content.
  • Application of the framework to a genetically engineered Bacillus subtilis strain reporting on sporulation commitment and AprE synthesis.
  • Analysis of memory capacity in response to 10 distinct cell histories prior to a common stressor.

Main Results:

  • Bacillus subtilis demonstrates memory of its past cell history, with both short-term and long-term recall.
  • The capacity for memory is distributed differently among the observed cellular behaviors (sporulation commitment, AprE synthesis).
  • The study provides quantitative estimates of memory capacity in bacterial systems.

Conclusions:

  • History-dependent behavior is a significant manifestation of cellular memory in bacteria.
  • The developed information-theory framework offers a method for quantifying microbial memory.
  • This work serves as a foundation for further investigation into the mechanistic bases and evolutionary implications of cellular memory.