Same genes, same conditions, different transport
Thursday, March 5, 2020 - 09:00
in Biology & Nature
The bacterium Lactococcus lactis, which plays an important role in the dairy industry, is unable to produce the amino acid methionine and has to rely on uptake from the environment. To do this, the bacteria have two systems with high and low affinity. University of Groningen microbiologists discovered that cells growing in a clonal population can differ in the uptake system they use. Furthermore, the choice for either system is maintained over many generations. It is the first time that such stable heterogeneity is observed in an amino acid uptake pathway. The results were published in the journal Nature Communications on 5 March.