Metabolic interactions between dynamic bacterial subpopulations
Abstract
Individual microbial species are known to occupy distinct metabolic niches within multi-species communities. However, it has remained largely unclear whether metabolic specialization can similarly occur within a clonal bacterial population. More specifically, it is not clear what functions such specialization could provide and how specialization could be coordinated dynamically. Here, we show that exponentially growing Bacillus subtilis cultures divide into distinct interacting metabolic subpopulations, including one population that produces acetate, and another population that differentially expresses metabolic genes for the production of acetoin, a pH-neutral storage molecule. These subpopulations exhibit distinct growth rates and dynamic interconversion between states. Furthermore, acetate concentration influences the relative sizes of the different subpopulations. These results show that clonal populations can use metabolic specialization to control the environment through a process of dynamic, environmentally-sensitive state-switching.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 29, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.7554/elife.33099
Entities
People
- Adam Rosenthal
- Jin Park
- Michael Elowitz
- Sahand Hormoz
- Sophia Hsin-Jung Li
- Yutao Qi
Organizations
- California Institute of Technology
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- National Institutes of Health
- National Science Foundation
- Princeton University