Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help
BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 26: Poster Session II
BP 26.35: Poster
Thursday, March 29, 2007, 17:00–19:30, Poster B
Stochastic stress response induction in B. subtilis — •Ilka Bischofs1, Denise Wolf2, and Adam Arkin1,2 — 1Department of Bioengineering, University of California at Berkeley, CA 94710, USA — 2Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720
There is a growing body of theory and experiments indicating that stress response diversification in microbes can be an adaptive response to an unpredictably fluctuating environment. B. subtilis phenomenologically shows such stress response diversification. When subjected to stressors such as starvations only a portion of the cell population forms an endospore. Here we use a combined experimental and theoretical approach to characterize stochastic sporulation induction in B. subtilis. Using fluorescent reporter strains we study population dynamics on the single cell level with quantitative time lapse microscopy and analyze our data with the help of theoretical models. With such quantification of the probabilistic decision making process we are poised to ask questions about the fitness advantage of such stochastic behaviors.