---
_id: '541'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: 'While we have good understanding of bacterial metabolism at the population
    level, we know little about the metabolic behavior of individual cells: do single
    cells in clonal populations sometimes specialize on different metabolic pathways?
    Such metabolic specialization could be driven by stochastic gene expression and
    could provide individual cells with growth benefits of specialization. We measured
    the degree of phenotypic specialization in two parallel metabolic pathways, the
    assimilation of glucose and arabinose. We grew Escherichia coli in chemostats,
    and used isotope-labeled sugars in combination with nanometer-scale secondary
    ion mass spectrometry and mathematical modeling to quantify sugar assimilation
    at the single-cell level. We found large variation in metabolic activities between
    single cells, both in absolute assimilation and in the degree to which individual
    cells specialize in the assimilation of different sugars. Analysis of transcriptional
    reporters indicated that this variation was at least partially based on cell-to-cell
    variation in gene expression. Metabolic differences between cells in clonal populations
    could potentially reduce metabolic incompatibilities between different pathways,
    and increase the rate at which parallel reactions can be performed.'
article_number: e1007122
article_processing_charge: No
author:
- first_name: Nela
  full_name: Nikolic, Nela
  id: 42D9CABC-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Nikolic
  orcid: 0000-0001-9068-6090
- first_name: Frank
  full_name: Schreiber, Frank
  last_name: Schreiber
- first_name: Alma
  full_name: Dal Co, Alma
  last_name: Dal Co
- first_name: Daniel
  full_name: Kiviet, Daniel
  last_name: Kiviet
- first_name: Tobias
  full_name: Bergmiller, Tobias
  id: 2C471CFA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Bergmiller
  orcid: 0000-0001-5396-4346
- first_name: Sten
  full_name: Littmann, Sten
  last_name: Littmann
- first_name: Marcel
  full_name: Kuypers, Marcel
  last_name: Kuypers
- first_name: Martin
  full_name: Ackermann, Martin
  last_name: Ackermann
citation:
  ama: Nikolic N, Schreiber F, Dal Co A, et al. Cell-to-cell variation and specialization
    in sugar metabolism in clonal bacterial populations. <i>PLoS Genetics</i>. 2017;13(12).
    doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007122">10.1371/journal.pgen.1007122</a>
  apa: Nikolic, N., Schreiber, F., Dal Co, A., Kiviet, D., Bergmiller, T., Littmann,
    S., … Ackermann, M. (2017). Cell-to-cell variation and specialization in sugar
    metabolism in clonal bacterial populations. <i>PLoS Genetics</i>. Public Library
    of Science. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007122">https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007122</a>
  chicago: Nikolic, Nela, Frank Schreiber, Alma Dal Co, Daniel Kiviet, Tobias Bergmiller,
    Sten Littmann, Marcel Kuypers, and Martin Ackermann. “Cell-to-Cell Variation and
    Specialization in Sugar Metabolism in Clonal Bacterial Populations.” <i>PLoS Genetics</i>.
    Public Library of Science, 2017. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007122">https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007122</a>.
  ieee: N. Nikolic <i>et al.</i>, “Cell-to-cell variation and specialization in sugar
    metabolism in clonal bacterial populations,” <i>PLoS Genetics</i>, vol. 13, no.
    12. Public Library of Science, 2017.
  ista: Nikolic N, Schreiber F, Dal Co A, Kiviet D, Bergmiller T, Littmann S, Kuypers
    M, Ackermann M. 2017. Cell-to-cell variation and specialization in sugar metabolism
    in clonal bacterial populations. PLoS Genetics. 13(12), e1007122.
  mla: Nikolic, Nela, et al. “Cell-to-Cell Variation and Specialization in Sugar Metabolism
    in Clonal Bacterial Populations.” <i>PLoS Genetics</i>, vol. 13, no. 12, e1007122,
    Public Library of Science, 2017, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007122">10.1371/journal.pgen.1007122</a>.
  short: N. Nikolic, F. Schreiber, A. Dal Co, D. Kiviet, T. Bergmiller, S. Littmann,
    M. Kuypers, M. Ackermann, PLoS Genetics 13 (2017).
corr_author: '1'
date_created: 2018-12-11T11:47:04Z
date_published: 2017-12-18T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2025-09-18T09:42:09Z
day: '18'
ddc:
- '576'
- '579'
department:
- _id: CaGu
doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007122
ec_funded: 1
external_id:
  isi:
  - '000419103000015'
file:
- access_level: open_access
  checksum: 22426d9382f21554bad5fa5967afcfd0
  content_type: application/pdf
  creator: system
  date_created: 2018-12-12T10:14:35Z
  date_updated: 2020-07-14T12:46:46Z
  file_id: '5088'
  file_name: IST-2018-959-v1+1_2017_Nikolic_Cell-to-cell.pdf
  file_size: 1308475
  relation: main_file
file_date_updated: 2020-07-14T12:46:46Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '        13'
isi: 1
issue: '12'
language:
- iso: eng
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
month: '12'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
project:
- _id: 25681D80-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425
  call_identifier: FP7
  grant_number: '291734'
  name: International IST Postdoc Fellowship Programme
publication: PLoS Genetics
publication_identifier:
  issn:
  - 1553-7390
publication_status: published
publisher: Public Library of Science
publist_id: '7275'
pubrep_id: '959'
quality_controlled: '1'
related_material:
  record:
  - id: '9844'
    relation: research_data
    status: public
  - id: '9845'
    relation: research_data
    status: public
  - id: '9846'
    relation: research_data
    status: public
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Cell-to-cell variation and specialization in sugar metabolism in clonal bacterial
  populations
tmp:
  image: /images/cc_by.png
  legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
  name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
  short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 317138e5-6ab7-11ef-aa6d-ffef3953e345
volume: 13
year: '2017'
...