Decoding Bistability and Drivers of Phenotypic Variation in Bacteria.

Authors

Jesús Cámara-Almirón, Milena Jaskólska, Jan-Willem Veening

Published in

Annual review of microbiology. Aug 19, 2026. Epub Aug 19, 2026.

Abstract

In a process known as phenotypic heterogeneity or phenotypic variation, bacteria can produce distinct phenotypes within an isogenic population in response to shifting environmental conditions. Noise in gene expression, asymmetric cell division, phase variation, and quorum sensing are some of the mechanisms that contribute to this variability, which is maintained by gene regulatory networks (usually involving feedback loops). Bistability in gene regulatory networks generates subpopulations exhibiting specific traits that can contribute to more complex adaptive strategies, promoting the fitness of the bacterial community as a whole. This review explores recent examples of phenotypic heterogeneity and its functional importance in bacterial collective behaviors. We focus on how synthetic biology can be used to better understand bacterial gene regulatory networks and the mechanisms underlying antibiotic resilience and persistence, and we discuss the bistability of integrative and conjugative elements.

PMID:
42617061
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 20 Aug 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.