A link between aging and persistence

This dataset was used to establish a connection between two phenomena related to phenotypic heterogeneity in bacteria: antibiotic persistence and aging. It contains physiological measurements of Escherichia coli cells growing within microfluidic devices, in either exponential or stationary phase. Populations growing exponentially were subjected to damaging treatments, either through photo-oxidation of sub-inhibitory Streptomycin concentrations, or to persistence triggering via Tetracycline exposure. Only the latter treatment produced persisters during exponential phase. Data from stationary phase populations includes the transition from exponential to stationary phase, showing that cells inheriting old poles arrest growth earlier than those inheriting new poles. Methods Escherichia coli cells were grown in mother machine and dial-a-wave microfluidic devices, and imaged through time-lapse microscopy. Cell segmentation was performed on ImageJ to determine cell sizes, elongation rates, and doubling times. The area of protein aggregates was determined with MicrobeJ.