Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2011 Aug;22(4):559-65. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2011.04.014. Epub 2011 May 16.
Quantitative empirical relationships between cell composition and growth rate played an important role in the early days of microbiology. Gradually, the focus of the field began to shift from growth physiology to the ever more elaborate molecular mechanisms of regulation employed by the organisms. Advances in systems biology and biotechnology have renewed interest in the physiology of the cell as a whole. Furthermore, gene expression is known to be intimately coupled to the growth state of the cell. Here, we review recent efforts in characterizing such couplings, particularly the quantitative phenomenological approaches exploiting bacterial 'growth laws.' These approaches point toward underlying design principles that can guide the predictive manipulation of cell behavior in the absence of molecular details.
细胞组成和生长速率之间的定量经验关系在微生物学的早期发挥了重要作用。渐渐地，该领域的重点开始从生长生理学转移到生物体所采用的越来越精细的调控分子机制。系统生物学和生物技术的进步重新激发了人们对细胞整体生理学的兴趣。此外，基因表达与细胞的生长状态密切相关。在这里，我们回顾了最近在描述这种耦合方面的努力，特别是利用细菌“生长规律”的定量现象学方法。这些方法指出了潜在的设计原则，可以在没有分子细节的情况下指导对细胞行为的预测性操作。
