Properties of cells are determined and maintained by various mechanisms beyond the genetic code. In recent years, there has been a rising interest in understanding how the state of a cell is influenced by its history. Many non-genetic mechanisms, including protein, RNA and other chemical components, have been identified that can affect cellular properties, yet the lifetime of these effects remains to be determined. This is because the effect of each mechanism has to be considered within the plethora of the complex interactions that take place within the cell. Thus, determining the effect of any single mechanism requires measuring its influence within the context of a living cell and as it interacts with other components of the cell. This has been a challenge for many years, but more recent developments, which allow tracking individual cells for extended period of time, have started to shed light on this problem, and provide valuable measurements of non-genetic memory in living microorganisms.
In the proposed Research Topic, we would like to highlight some of the recent findings from the different subfields of this study, and bridge the gap between them in order to motivate research in this field that will ultimately enable us to understand memory mechanisms in living organisms and how history affects the development of cells over time.
A combination of theoretical and experimental studies will be important to achieving this goal, and to this end we will be inviting contributions from both theorists and experimentalists, and from researchers that combine modeling and experiments in their own work.
This Research Topic welcomes Original Research, Review and Mini-Review articles on the following themes:
• Non-genetic mechanisms and their function in microbial adaptation
• Single cell experiments and/or analyses focusing on history-dependent behaviors
• Experimental or theoretical studies on the role of memory and non-genetic inheritance in microbes
This issue is dedicated to the memory of our co-editor Josep Casadesús who has contributed significantly to advancing our understanding of epigenetic mechanisms in bacteria. Josep passed away in August 2022 while working on putting together this special issue.
Properties of cells are determined and maintained by various mechanisms beyond the genetic code. In recent years, there has been a rising interest in understanding how the state of a cell is influenced by its history. Many non-genetic mechanisms, including protein, RNA and other chemical components, have been identified that can affect cellular properties, yet the lifetime of these effects remains to be determined. This is because the effect of each mechanism has to be considered within the plethora of the complex interactions that take place within the cell. Thus, determining the effect of any single mechanism requires measuring its influence within the context of a living cell and as it interacts with other components of the cell. This has been a challenge for many years, but more recent developments, which allow tracking individual cells for extended period of time, have started to shed light on this problem, and provide valuable measurements of non-genetic memory in living microorganisms.
In the proposed Research Topic, we would like to highlight some of the recent findings from the different subfields of this study, and bridge the gap between them in order to motivate research in this field that will ultimately enable us to understand memory mechanisms in living organisms and how history affects the development of cells over time.
A combination of theoretical and experimental studies will be important to achieving this goal, and to this end we will be inviting contributions from both theorists and experimentalists, and from researchers that combine modeling and experiments in their own work.
This Research Topic welcomes Original Research, Review and Mini-Review articles on the following themes:
• Non-genetic mechanisms and their function in microbial adaptation
• Single cell experiments and/or analyses focusing on history-dependent behaviors
• Experimental or theoretical studies on the role of memory and non-genetic inheritance in microbes
This issue is dedicated to the memory of our co-editor Josep Casadesús who has contributed significantly to advancing our understanding of epigenetic mechanisms in bacteria. Josep passed away in August 2022 while working on putting together this special issue.
