Fig. 5. Trade-off principles of microbial growth control links three levels of microbiological disciplines.

At molecular level, it is tightly related to the global gene regulation and resource allocation strategy of microbial cells. At physiological level, it is related to the bet-hedging strategy of microbial cells to balance growth and other key physiological traits such as adaptability, survival and stress tolerance as well as antibiotic tolerance. At ecology level, it is closely related to the emergency of phenotypic diversity that associated with many ecological phenomena such as co-existence of different phenotypes, population heterogeneity and the occurrence of oligotrophic/copiotrophic lifestyles.