Dipartimento di Fisica and INFN, University of Torino, Torino, I-10125, Italy.
AMOLF, Science Park 104, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Trends Microbiol. 2017 Apr;25(4):250-256. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2016.12.005. Epub 2017 Jan 13.
The Escherichia coli cell cycle is a classic, but we are still missing some of its essential aspects. The reason is that our knowledge is mostly based on population data, and our grasp of the behavior of single cells is still very limited. Today, new dynamic single-cell data promise to overcome this barrier. Existing data from single cells have already led to findings and hypotheses that challenge standard views, and have raised new questions. Here, we review these recent developments and propose that a systematic exploration of the correlation patterns between 'cell-cycle intervals' defined by key molecular events measured in many single cells could lead to a quantitative characterization of the cell cycle in terms of inherent stochasticity and homeostatic controls.
大肠杆菌的细胞周期是一个经典的范例，但我们仍然缺少其某些重要方面。原因在于我们的知识主要基于群体数据，而对单细胞行为的理解仍然非常有限。如今，新的动态单细胞数据有望克服这一障碍。来自单细胞的现有数据已经产生了挑战标准观点的发现和假设，并提出了新的问题。在这里，我们回顾了这些最近的发展，并提出了一个系统的方案，即通过对许多单细胞中测量的关键分子事件所定义的“细胞周期间隔”的相关模式进行探索，从而可以根据内在的随机性和动态平衡控制来对细胞周期进行定量描述。
