SIGNATURE WORK
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2022

This project studied the physiological adaptation to changing carbon sources in the laboratory environment. Bacteria in natural habitats have generally developed a coping system for facing the constantly fluctuating environment while changes in many factors could influence cell growth. A previous study has provided evidence of a trade-off between growth rate and physiological adaptation of Escherichia coli, marked by multi-hour lags of growth when the carbon source in the culture media is completely shifted from a desirable source such as glucose to acetate, a product of fermentation. In this study, we implemented metabolomic analysis to further investigate the differences in E. coli adaptability with different carbon source shifts, which were not addressed in past research. We report a decrease in cell number when glucose-to-acetate is applied while no decrease in cells cultured in galactose pre-shift medium. Corresponding metabolic data also shows the time differences when vast significant changes in metabolite levels take place, indicating coping mechanisms with potential different time-limiting steps between glucose and galactose shifts.