Cell-cycle research with synchronous cultures: An evaluation

Charles E. Helmstetter, Maureen Thornton, N. B. Grover*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

The baby-machine system, which produces new-born Escherichia coli cells from cultures immobilized on a membrane, was developed many years ago in an attempt to attain optimal synchrony with minimal disturbance of steady-state growth. In the present article, we put forward a model to describe the behaviour of cells produced by this method, and provide quantitative evaluation of the parameters involved, at each of four different growth rates. Considering the high level of selection achievable with this technique and the natural dispersion in interdivision times, we believe that the output of the baby machine is probably close to optimal in terms of both quality and persistence of synchrony. We show that considerable information on events in the cell cycle can be obtained from populations with age distributions very much broader than those achieved with the baby machine and differing only modestly from steady state. The data presented here, together with the long and fruitful history of findings employing the baby-machine technique, suggest that minimisation of stress on cells is the single most important factor for successful cell-cycle analysis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)83-89
Number of pages7
JournalBiochimie
Volume83
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2001

Keywords

  • Baby machine
  • Cell cycle
  • Distribution of cell interdivision times
  • Model for synchronous growth of Escherichia coli
  • Synchronous growth parameters

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