Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Stringent Response in E. coli01:23

Stringent Response in E. coli

Bacterial growth is closely tied to nutrient availability, with cells proliferating exponentially under favorable conditions and entering a stationary phase when resources become scarce. This transition is mediated by a regulatory mechanism known as the stringent response, which allows bacteria to adapt to nutrient deprivation by modulating gene expression and metabolic activity.During nutrient scarcity, intracellular amino acid levels decline. It results in the accumulation of uncharged tRNAs...
Other Stress Responses in Bacteria01:30

Other Stress Responses in Bacteria

Bacteria have global regulatory systems that control several types of stress mechanisms. These include Pho regulon and the heat shock response, which are essential systems for environmental adaptation, such as nutrient limitation and proteotoxic stress. The Pho regulon and the heat shock response exemplify bacterial resilience, enabling rapid adaptation to fluctuating environmental conditions.Pho RegulonBacteria require phosphorus for essential cellular processes, including nucleic acid...
Bacterial Phylum Actinobacteria01:30

Bacterial Phylum Actinobacteria

Coryneform bacteria are gram-positive, aerobic, nonmotile rods that exhibit irregular, club-shaped, or V-shaped arrangements. Their V-shape results from snapping division, where the inner cell wall layer forms the cross-wall, while the outer layer remains intact until it ruptures on one side, causing the daughter cells to bend away.The primary genera are Corynebacterium and Arthrobacter. Corynebacterium includes diverse species, ranging from saprophytes to pathogens like Corynebacterium...
Defense Against Bacterial Pathogens01:31

Defense Against Bacterial Pathogens

The human immune system is a complex network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to defend the body against bacterial infections. It consists of various immune cells, each playing a specific role in the defense mechanism.
Phagocytes
Phagocytes are the frontline soldiers of the immune system. They include neutrophils and macrophages. Neutrophils are the most abundant type of white blood cell and are quickly mobilized to the site of infection. Macrophages are larger cells that patrol...
Regulation of Bacterial Virulence01:28

Regulation of Bacterial Virulence

Pathogenic bacteria employ a range of regulatory mechanisms to modulate the expression of virulence genes in response to environmental and host-derived signals. These mechanisms ensure that virulence factors are expressed only under favorable conditions, thereby optimizing infection and survival strategies.Mechanisms of Virulence RegulationKey regulatory strategies include:Two-Component Systems: These consist of a membrane-bound sensor kinase and a cytoplasmic response regulator. Environmental...
Modern Molecular Taxonomy01:29

Modern Molecular Taxonomy

Advancements in molecular biology have revolutionized the identification and characterization of bacteria, with multiple methods leveraging DNA sequencing for enhanced precision. As sequencing technologies improve and costs decline, these approaches are increasingly used in clinical, environmental, and evolutionary studies.Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) examines several housekeeping genes, essential chromosomal genes encoding cellular functions, to distinguish strains. Approximately...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Two closely related β-1,2-xylosyltransferases differentially impact fungal glycan synthesis.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

Exploiting autophagy-targeting natural compounds for potential antimicrobial actions.

Autophagy·2026
Same author

Cyclic dinucleotide signaling in mycobacteria: Roles of c-di-AMP and c-di-GMP in physiology and pathogenesis.

Tuberculosis (Edinburgh, Scotland)·2026
Same author

Thermodynamic uncertainty relation constrains information transmission through cell signaling systems.

Physical biology·2026
Same author

Exploring the evolutionary divergence of cyclic di-nucleotide signaling in diverse mycobacterial species.

Archives of microbiology·2026
Same author

Hierarchical switching pattern in antigenic variation provides survival advantage for malaria parasites under variable host immunity.

Physical biology·2025
Same journal

Correction to: A quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) model for Pneumocystis treatment in mice.

BMC systems biology·2019
Same journal

Predicting disease-related phenotypes using an integrated phenotype similarity measurement based on HPO.

BMC systems biology·2019
Same journal

Fusing gene expressions and transitive protein-protein interactions for inference of gene regulatory networks.

BMC systems biology·2019
Same journal

A fast and efficient count-based matrix factorization method for detecting cell types from single-cell RNAseq data.

BMC systems biology·2019
Same journal

GNE: a deep learning framework for gene network inference by aggregating biological information.

BMC systems biology·2019
Same journal

FCMDAP: using miRNA family and cluster information to improve the prediction accuracy of disease related miRNAs.

BMC systems biology·2019
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Demonstrating a Multi-drug Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Amplification Microarray
07:35

Demonstrating a Multi-drug Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Amplification Microarray

Published on: April 25, 2014

Phenotypic heterogeneity in mycobacterial stringent response.

Sayantari Ghosh1, Kamakshi Sureka, Bhaswar Ghosh

  • 1Department of Physics, Bose Institute, Kolkata, India.

BMC Systems Biology
|January 29, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Microbial populations develop phenotypic heterogeneity for survival. This study reveals two stable expression states (bistability) in Mycobacterium smegmatis, leading to distinct subpopulations with overlapping protein distributions during nutrient stress.

More Related Videos

A Microscopic Phenotypic Assay for the Quantification of Intracellular Mycobacteria Adapted for High-throughput/High-content Screening
15:28

A Microscopic Phenotypic Assay for the Quantification of Intracellular Mycobacteria Adapted for High-throughput/High-content Screening

Published on: January 17, 2014

A Novel Microdissection Approach to Recovering Mycobacterium tuberculosis Specific Transcripts from Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Lung Granulomas
07:42

A Novel Microdissection Approach to Recovering Mycobacterium tuberculosis Specific Transcripts from Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Lung Granulomas

Published on: June 5, 2014

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Demonstrating a Multi-drug Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Amplification Microarray
07:35

Demonstrating a Multi-drug Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Amplification Microarray

Published on: April 25, 2014

A Microscopic Phenotypic Assay for the Quantification of Intracellular Mycobacteria Adapted for High-throughput/High-content Screening
15:28

A Microscopic Phenotypic Assay for the Quantification of Intracellular Mycobacteria Adapted for High-throughput/High-content Screening

Published on: January 17, 2014

A Novel Microdissection Approach to Recovering Mycobacterium tuberculosis Specific Transcripts from Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Lung Granulomas
07:42

A Novel Microdissection Approach to Recovering Mycobacterium tuberculosis Specific Transcripts from Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Lung Granulomas

Published on: June 5, 2014

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Systems Biology
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • Microorganisms employ phenotypic heterogeneity as a survival strategy under stress.
  • Mycobacterium smegmatis exhibits phenotypic heterogeneity under nutrient depletion, characterized by bimodal Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) expression.
  • This heterogeneity is linked to the stringent response pathway, initiated by high rel gene activity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantitatively characterize single-cell promoter activity of key stringent response genes (mprA, sigE, rel) in Mycobacterium smegmatis.
  • To investigate the underlying mechanism of phenotypic heterogeneity, specifically the origin of bimodal GFP distribution.
  • To develop and validate a theoretical model for the stringent response pathway dynamics.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) as a reporter fused to gene promoters.
  • Employed flow cytometry to analyze single-cell promoter activity and GFP distribution.
  • Developed a theoretical model incorporating positive feedback and growth retardation for pathway dynamics.
  • Applied a binning algorithm to analyze time-varying population characteristics.

Main Results:

  • Identified bistability, arising from two stable expression states, as the origin of bimodality in GFP distribution.
  • Demonstrated that GFP level distribution is a linear superposition of Gaussian and lognormal distributions.
  • Quantified time-varying mean protein levels, subpopulation fractions, and gene expression noise (coefficient of variation).

Conclusions:

  • Confirmed the coexistence of two distinct subpopulations with overlapping protein distributions.
  • Provided definitive evidence for bistability in the stringent response pathway of Mycobacterium smegmatis.
  • Integrated theoretical modeling with experimental flow cytometry data for comprehensive analysis.