Many systems on our planet shift abruptly and irreversibly from the desired state to an
undesired state when forced across a “tip** point”. Some examples are mass extinctions …

Predictive biology is the next great chapter in synthetic and systems biology, particularly for
microorganisms. Tasks that once seemed infeasible are increasingly being realized such as …

Precise control over microbial cell growth conditions could enable detection of minute
phenotypic changes, which would improve our understanding of how genotypes are shaped …

It is widely acknowledged that faster-growing bacteria are killed faster by β-lactam
antibiotics. This notion serves as the foundation for the concept of bacterial persistence …

Highlights•Genes and genetic circuits exhibit growth-rate dependence.•Growth rate
dependence reflects coupling of gene expression and physiological state of the cell.•Several …

Genetically identical cells frequently display substantial heterogeneity in gene expression,
cellular morphology and physiology. It has been suggested that by rapidly generating a …

Individual cells within an otherwise genetically homogenous population constantly undergo
fluctuations in their molecular state, giving rise to non-genetic heterogeneity. Such diversity …

Bacterial communication plays an important role in many population-based phenotypes and
interspecies interactions, including those in host environments. These interspecies …

Noise in gene expression can lead to reversible phenotypic switching. Several experimental
studies have shown that the abundance distributions of proteins in a population of isogenic …

A major challenge in biology is that genetically identical cells in the same environment can
display gene expression stochasticity (noise), which contributes to bet-hedging, drug …