Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Enhanced nutrient uptake is sufficient to drive emergent cross-feeding between bacteria in a synthetic community

Ryan K Fritts, Jordan T Bird, Megan G Behringer, Anna Lipzen, Joel Martin, Michael Lynch, View ORCID ProfileJames B McKinlay
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/770727
Ryan K Fritts
1Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, 47405
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jordan T Bird
2Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, 72205
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Megan G Behringer
3School of Life Sciences, Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85281
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Anna Lipzen
4Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA, 94598
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Joel Martin
4Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA, 94598
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Michael Lynch
3School of Life Sciences, Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85281
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
James B McKinlay
1Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, 47405
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for James B McKinlay
  • For correspondence: jmckinla@indiana.edu
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

Interactive microbial communities are ubiquitous, influencing biogeochemical cycles and host health. One widespread interaction is nutrient exchange, or cross-feeding, wherein metabolites are transferred between microbes. Some cross-fed metabolites, such as vitamins, amino acids, and ammonium (NH4+), are communally valuable and impose a cost on the producer. The mechanisms that enforce cross-feeding of communally valuable metabolites are not fully understood. Previously we engineered mutualistic cross-feeding between N2-fixing Rhodopseudomonas palustris and fermentative Escherichia coli. Engineered R. palustris excreted essential nitrogen as NH4+ to E. coli while E. coli excreted essential carbon as fermentation products to R. palustris. Here, we enriched for nascent cross-feeding in cocultures with wild-type R. palustris, not known to excrete NH4+. Emergent NH4+ cross-feeding was driven by adaptation of E. coli alone. A missense mutation in E. coli NtrC, a regulator of nitrogen scavenging, resulted in constitutive activation of an NH4+ transporter. This activity likely allowed E. coli to subsist on the small amount of leaked NH4+ and better reciprocate through elevated excretion of organic acids from a larger E. coli population. Our results indicate that enhanced nutrient uptake by recipients, rather than increased excretion by producers, is an underappreciated yet possibly prevalent mechanism by which cross-feeding can emerge.

Footnotes

  • The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted April 04, 2020.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Enhanced nutrient uptake is sufficient to drive emergent cross-feeding between bacteria in a synthetic community
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Enhanced nutrient uptake is sufficient to drive emergent cross-feeding between bacteria in a synthetic community
Ryan K Fritts, Jordan T Bird, Megan G Behringer, Anna Lipzen, Joel Martin, Michael Lynch, James B McKinlay
bioRxiv 770727; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/770727
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Enhanced nutrient uptake is sufficient to drive emergent cross-feeding between bacteria in a synthetic community
Ryan K Fritts, Jordan T Bird, Megan G Behringer, Anna Lipzen, Joel Martin, Michael Lynch, James B McKinlay
bioRxiv 770727; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/770727

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Microbiology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4672)
  • Biochemistry (10340)
  • Bioengineering (7658)
  • Bioinformatics (26300)
  • Biophysics (13501)
  • Cancer Biology (10672)
  • Cell Biology (15412)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (8487)
  • Ecology (12806)
  • Epidemiology (2067)
  • Evolutionary Biology (16831)
  • Genetics (11382)
  • Genomics (15469)
  • Immunology (10601)
  • Microbiology (25181)
  • Molecular Biology (10209)
  • Neuroscience (54383)
  • Paleontology (399)
  • Pathology (1667)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2889)
  • Physiology (4334)
  • Plant Biology (9235)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1586)
  • Synthetic Biology (2555)
  • Systems Biology (6773)
  • Zoology (1461)