Emergence of growth and dormancy from a kinetic model of the Escherichia coli central carbon metabolism

Physiological states of bacterial cells exhibit a wide spectrum of timescale. Under nutrient-rich conditions, most of the cells in an isogenic bacterial population grow at certain rates, while a small subpopulation sometimes stays in a dormant state where the growth rates slow down by orders of magnitude. For revealing the origins of such heterogeneity of timescales, we studied the kinetic model of Escherichia coli central carbon metabolism. We found that the model robustly exhibits both the growing- and the dormant state. Performing the model reduction, we have revealed the necessary conditions for the distinct behaviour, namely, the depletion of energy due to the futile cycle and its non-uniform impact on the kinetics because of the coexistence of the energy currency-coupled and uncoupled reactions as well as branching of the network.