A single bacterium under stress does not flip a simple switch—it rewires a dense network of thousands of interacting molecules, and scientists still cannot predict which combinations of changes will keep the cell alive. This project addresses a fundamental gap in biology: how bacteria integrate multiple stresses at once. Most studies examine one stressor at a time, but real environments—inside a host, in a fermentation vat, or in a water pipe—hit cells with heat, acidity, antibiotics, and nutrient shortages simultaneously. The researchers will build chimeric proteins that redirect bacterial stress responses, then use probabilistic modelling to map which combinations of molecular players allow survival. If successful, the work will reveal the boundary conditions of bacterial adaptability. For synthetic biology, this means knowing how to push a cell to produce a valuable compound without killing it. For medicine, it could identify vulnerabilities in pathogens that suggest new antibiotic targets. The comparative study across two bacterial species also explores how stress responses evolve, linking fundamental cell biology to bacterial pathogenesis. This is primarily curiosity-driven fundamental science. It will not produce a drug or a product immediately, but understanding how cells solve the combinatorial problem of survival could inform future efforts to direct microbial evolution or design therapies that exploit bacterial weaknesses.
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Living systems adapt to changing environments in order to survive and to grow and reproduce. Features of an adaptive response have to date been studied in a fairly one dimensional way, yet we know that the cell operates using networks of interactions between the key players that are responsible for the cells growth and viability. These players can sense stress, some will cause new players to appear in the cell, and some of these will work to overcome the stress in different ways. However the relationships between these different players and the levels at which they operate are largely unknown. In particular whether or not a single unique solution to a set of imposed conditions is all that can reasonably operate in the cell is a major unknown. Knowledge of the boundary conditions acceptable to a cell will greatly help advance work where special properties of a cell are desirable, as for example in many biotechnological and synthetic biology settings. By studying two important but relatively experimentally amenable single cell bacteria we will study what cell components change when the cells respond to stress and how their patterns of response amount to an integrated response to stress. To do so we will collect data across several different areas of cell activity, and will perturb cells using novel control proteins to redirect responses away from particular imposed stresses. Data analysis coupled to mathematical modelling will be conducted in order to integrate and describe the observed cellular behaviour, and to help explain how the processes contributing to the cell's responses work as a whole. The collection of data is targeted directly at informing the development and evaluation of mechanistic models of cell response. We have chosen to conduct the same experimental programme in two different bacterial organisms. This comparative dimension to the proposed research project allows us to explore the evolutionary aspects underlying the response to stresses that are intimately linked to bacterial pathogenesis. This also has the potential to inform future analyses in synthetic biology or attempts to direct microorganismal evolution. At the end of the research program we expect to able to better predict how cells cope with large changes in their environments, through a knowledge of which activities within the cell are key to achieving adaptation to stress. Outcomes of the work should provide insights into how cells might be forward evolved for particular purposes, and identify where particular vulnerabilities might exist that may suggest new targets for remedial therapies such as new antibiotic targets.
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