Hypothesis and objectives

Hypothesis

Bacterial exposure to a stressful environment, such as openness to antibiotics, can trigger filamentous-like growth in the bacteria, which can increase their probabilities of survival compared to those bacteria that are unable to the filament.

General objective

To characterize bacterial survival due to filamentation upon antibiotics exposure, mathematically and experimentally in strains with chromosomal resistance genes or a non-conjugative multicopy plasmid.

Particular objectives

• Obtain time series with the state of each bacteria before exposure to antibiotics (i.e., normal, stressed, or dead).

• Quantify cell growth and division rates and correlate them with cell status.

• Mathematical modeling of bacterial filamentation based on cell length and internal concentration of antibiotics over time.