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Metabolic coupling in bacteria

Shraddha Shitut, Tobias Ahsendorf, Samay Pande, Matthew Egbert, Christian Kost
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/114462
Shraddha Shitut
1Experimental Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, 07745, Germany
5Department of Ecology, School of Biology/Chemistry, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, 49076, Germany
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Tobias Ahsendorf
2Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, D-69120, Germany
3Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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Samay Pande
1Experimental Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, 07745, Germany
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Matthew Egbert
4Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand
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Christian Kost
1Experimental Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, 07745, Germany
5Department of Ecology, School of Biology/Chemistry, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, 49076, Germany
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  • For correspondence: christiankost@gmail.com
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ABSTRACT

Symbiotic associations have radically shaped the diversity and complexity of life on earth. Many known symbioses represent physiological fusions of previously independent organisms, in which metabolites are traded between interacting partners in intricate ways. The first steps leading to this tight entanglement, however, remain unknown. Here we demonstrate that unidirectional cross-feeding of essential amino acids between two bacterial cells can already couple their metabolisms in a source-sink-like relationship. Auxotrophic recipients used intercellular nanotubes to derive amino acids from other bacterial cells. Removal of cytoplasmic amino acids in this way increased the amino acid production of donor cells by delaying feedback inhibition of the corresponding amino acid biosynthetic pathway. Strikingly, even though donor cells produced all the focal amino acids recipients required to grow, this additional metabolic burden did not incur detectable fitness costs. Our results demonstrate that one loss-of-function mutation is sufficient to couple the metabolic networks of two organisms, thus resulting in a functional fusion of two previously independent individuals.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted March 06, 2017.
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Metabolic coupling in bacteria
Shraddha Shitut, Tobias Ahsendorf, Samay Pande, Matthew Egbert, Christian Kost
bioRxiv 114462; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/114462
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Metabolic coupling in bacteria
Shraddha Shitut, Tobias Ahsendorf, Samay Pande, Matthew Egbert, Christian Kost
bioRxiv 114462; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/114462

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