Figure 5. HOG pathway mutants exhibit a lower death rate and an increased population growth rate under in-phase stresses (IPS).
(a, b) Images of wild-type (a) and pbs2Δ mutant (b) cells before (t=0 min) and after (t=600 min) growth in IPS (left) and alternating stress (AS) (right) conditions. Fluorescence and bright-field images were merged to visualize nuclei marked with HTB2-mCherry. White arrows indicate nuclei of representative dead cells. Scale bars represent 10 µm. (c, d) Death rates (c) and population growth rates (d) of the reference strain and seven deletion mutants under IPS and AS conditions. Population growth rates were calculated as the difference between division rates (Figure 4b) and death rates (c). Bars show mean rates measured in different growth chambers. Error bars are 95% confidence intervals of the mean. Red symbols show the average rate for each field of view. Results of t-tests comparing the wild-type and mutant strains under the same conditions are indicated above each bar; results comparing the same strain under different conditions are shown above each pair of bars (ns p>0.05; *0.01<p<0.05; **0.001<p<0.01; ***p<0.001). The initial number of cells analyzed among replicates ranged from 97 to 467 in (c, d). (a–d) Cells were grown under fluctuations of 2% glucose and 1 M sorbitol at a period of 24 min.