(125e) Heterogeneous Bacterial Energies As a Bet-Hedging Strategy Against Antibiotics

The exometabolome plays a major role in controlling the formation of bacterial communities and their interactions. To understand how dominant components of the exometabolome shape communities, it is necessary to determine their effects on bacterial physiology. I will discuss how we measure bacterial energies with single-cell assays to quantify aspects of their physiological responses to stressors. Our measurements of the energy source, the proton-motive force (PMF), are revealing fundamental insights into the defense mechanisms employed by native bacteria against invaders as well as antibacterial agents. I will present findings that indicate a broad distribution of PMF levels in bacteria when stressed. Presumably, such phenotypic variability promotes fitness by enabling individual cells to employ heterogeneous survival strategies. Finally, I will discuss our quantitative models that reveal the effect of key exo-metabolites on intracellular protein function and colony formation [1].

[1] Gupta et al, PNAS Nexus, 2022