Fig. 2: UPEC persistence is not linked to single-cell growth rates.

a Line-plots depicting cell growth and division in persistent lineages of UPEC strain CFT073. Individual cells were tracked by time-lapse microscopy before, during (grey shading), and after a 4-h exposure to 50 μg ml⁻¹ ampicillin. Examples are shown of persistent lineages arising from growing progenitors (top and middle rows) or non-growing progenitors (bottom row). Magenta lines, old-pole cells. Green lines, new-pole cells. Black lines, generations before and after ampicillin treatment. Line-plots of the remaining 15 persistent cell lineages are shown in Fig. S2. b Comparison of the pre-ampicillin growth rates (min⁻¹) of surviving (squares, n = 24) and extinguished (circles, n = 351) cell lineages. Slowly growing and non-growing cells (T_d>120 min) are shaded in red. Red lines indicate means ± SD. P = 0.16 Mann–Whitney t-test. c Comparison of the cell sizes at birth of bacteria that died (circles, n = 428) or survived (squares, n = 24) upon exposure to 50 μg ml⁻¹ ampicillin. Red lines indicate means ± SD. P = 0.54, Mann–Whitney t-test.