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Single-Cell Biophysics: Measurement, Modulation, and Modeling
Poster Abstracts
110
24-POS
Board 12
Trapping Single Bacterial Cells and Their Progeny to Study the Emergence of Phenotypic
Heterogeneity
Ágnes Ábrahám, Krisztina Nagy, Lóránd Kelemen,
Peter Galajda
.
Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary.
Despite their genetic identity cells in a clonal population exhibit a variation in their phenotypic
characteristics. This heterogeneity contributes to the fitness of the population especially in a
changing environment. Such variability have been observed for various different cell types, from
bacteria to mammalian cells. However, the origin and the processes behind the emergence of
phenotypic heterogeneity remain largely unknown.
We have developed a microfluidic device consisting of an array of single cell traps to study the
emergence of phenotypic heterogeneity in bacteria. Following division of a trapped cell one
daughter cell remains in the trap while the other drops out and falls into the next empty trap.
After several divisions all the traps are filled with the progeny of a single cell. All trapped cells
may be imaged and characterized using high resolution microscopy, Phenotypic characteristics
such as cell size, cell shape, division rate or gene expression levels may be precisely measured in
an experimental timeframe reaching 100 generations. By analyzing this data along with the
information on the relatedness of each cell we are exploring the basic principles and processes
behind the emergence of phenotypic heterogeneity in a population originating from a single cell.