Mostly Biomathematics Lunchtime Seminar

---

Phenotypic memory in fluctuating environments

Speaker: Edo Kussell, Professor of Biology

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 1314

Date: Tuesday, April 2, 2024, 12:45 p.m.

Synopsis:

Bacteria growing in fluctuating environments rely on gene regulatory mechanisms that activate and repress specific genes in response to environmental cues. By measuring their growth in a fluctuating environment using microfluidic devices, we have found that phenotypic memory in the sugar operons of Escherichia coli enables cells to minimize the impact of lag phases on growth. In this talk, I describe our experiments probing the molecular mechanism of phenotypic memory, and inferring its molecular rate constants using a biophysical modeling approach.