LMP Seminar: On balanced growth and precision control

Two core principles underlie bacterial physiology. The first, articulated in the 1950s, is balanced growth — the idea that all cellular components increase at the same rate. The second is precision control — the cell’s ability to coordinate spatial and temporal events, such as DNA replication and division, with remarkable accuracy. Reconciling these two principles poses a conceptual challenge rarely addressed in biology textbooks. In this talk, I will show how bacteria achieve physiological homeostasis and precise regulation under balanced growth, revealing mechanisms fundamentally different from those emphasized in eukaryote-centric models.