scholarly journals Investigating the chemolithoautotrophic and formate metabolism of Nitrospira moscoviensis by constraint-based metabolic modeling and 13C-tracer analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher E. Lawson ◽  
Aniela B. Mundinger ◽  
Hanna Koch ◽  
Tyler B. Jacobson ◽  
Coty A. Weathersby ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Metabolic Networks ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Nitrifying Bacteria ◽  
Metabolomic Analysis ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Nitrite Oxidizing Bacteria ◽  
Genome Scale ◽  
Nitrospira Moscoviensis

AbstractNitrite-oxidizing bacteria belonging to the genus Nitrospira mediate a key step in nitrification and play important roles in the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle and wastewater treatment. While these organisms have recently been shown to exhibit metabolic flexibility beyond their chemolithoautotrophic lifestyle, including the use of simple organic compounds to fuel their energy metabolism, the metabolic networks controlling their autotrophic and mixotrophic growth remain poorly understood. Here, we reconstructed a genome-scale metabolic model for Nitrospira moscoviensis (iNmo686) and used constraint-based analysis to evaluate the metabolic networks controlling autotrophic and formatotrophic growth on nitrite and formate, respectively. Subsequently, proteomic analysis and 13C-tracer experiments with bicarbonate and formate coupled to metabolomic analysis were performed to experimentally validate model predictions. Our findings support that N. moscoviensis uses the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle for CO2 fixation. We also show that N. moscoviensis can indirectly use formate as a carbon source by oxidizing it first to CO2 followed by reassimilation, rather than direct incorporation via the reductive glycine pathway. Our study offers the first measurements of Nitrospira’s in vivo central carbon metabolism and provides a quantitative tool that can be used for understanding and predicting their metabolic processes.ImportanceNitrospira are globally abundant nitrifying bacteria in soil and aquatic ecosystems and wastewater treatment plants, where they control the oxidation of nitrite to nitrate. Despite their critical contribution to nitrogen cycling across diverse environments, detailed understanding of their metabolic network and prediction of their function under different environmental conditions remains a major challenge. Here, we provide the first constraint-based metabolic model of N. moscoviensis representing the ubiquitous Nitrospira lineage II and subsequently validate this model using proteomics and 13C-tracers combined with intracellular metabolomic analysis. The resulting genome-scale model will serve as a knowledge base of Nitrospira metabolism and lays the foundation for quantitative systems biology studies of these globally important nitrite- oxidizing bacteria.

scholarly journals Identification of potential drug targets in Salmonella enterica sv. Typhimurium using metabolic modelling and experimental validation

Microbiology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 160 (6) ◽  
pp. 1252-1266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hassan B. Hartman ◽  
David A. Fell ◽  
Sergio Rossell ◽  
Peter Ruhdal Jensen ◽  
Martin J. Woodward ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Salmonella Enterica ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Drug Targets ◽  
Minimal Medium ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Glucose Minimal Medium ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Genome Scale

Salmonella enterica sv. Typhimurium is an established model organism for Gram-negative, intracellular pathogens. Owing to the rapid spread of resistance to antibiotics among this group of pathogens, new approaches to identify suitable target proteins are required. Based on the genome sequence of S. Typhimurium and associated databases, a genome-scale metabolic model was constructed. Output was based on an experimental determination of the biomass of Salmonella when growing in glucose minimal medium. Linear programming was used to simulate variations in the energy demand while growing in glucose minimal medium. By grouping reactions with similar flux responses, a subnetwork of 34 reactions responding to this variation was identified (the catabolic core). This network was used to identify sets of one and two reactions that when removed from the genome-scale model interfered with energy and biomass generation. Eleven such sets were found to be essential for the production of biomass precursors. Experimental investigation of seven of these showed that knockouts of the associated genes resulted in attenuated growth for four pairs of reactions, whilst three single reactions were shown to be essential for growth.

scholarly journals Genome-Scale Model of Streptococcus thermophilus LMG18311 for Metabolic Comparison of Lactic Acid Bacteria

2009 ◽  
Vol 75 (11) ◽  
pp. 3627-3633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margreet I. Pastink ◽  
Bas Teusink ◽  
Pascal Hols ◽  
Sanne Visser ◽  
Willem M. de Vos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lactic Acid ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Lactic Acid Bacteria ◽  
Streptococcus Thermophilus ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Pentose Phosphate ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Broad Variety ◽  
Genome Scale

ABSTRACT In this report, we describe the amino acid metabolism and amino acid dependency of the dairy bacterium Streptococcus thermophilus LMG18311 and compare them with those of two other characterized lactic acid bacteria, Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus plantarum. Through the construction of a genome-scale metabolic model of S. thermophilus, the metabolic differences between the three bacteria were visualized by direct projection on a metabolic map. The comparative analysis revealed the minimal amino acid auxotrophy (only histidine and methionine or cysteine) of S. thermophilus LMG18311 and the broad variety of volatiles produced from amino acids compared to the other two bacteria. It also revealed the limited number of pyruvate branches, forcing this strain to use the homofermentative metabolism for growth optimization. In addition, some industrially relevant features could be identified in S. thermophilus, such as the unique pathway for acetaldehyde (yogurt flavor) production and the absence of a complete pentose phosphate pathway.

scholarly journals Nature lessons: the whitefly bacterial endosymbiont is a minimal amino acid factory with unusual energetics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Calle-Espinosa ◽  
Miguel Ponce-de-Leon ◽  
Diego Santos-Garcia ◽  
Francisco J. Silva ◽  
Francisco Montero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Metabolic Networks ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Atp Production ◽  
Symbiotic Associations ◽  
Bacterial Endosymbiont ◽  
Metabolic Functions ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Genome Scale

Bacterial lineages that establish obligate symbiotic associations with insect hosts are known to possess highly reduced genomes with streamlined metabolic functions that are commonly focused on amino acid and vitamin synthesis. We constructed a genome-scale metabolic model of the whitefly bacterial endosymbiont Candidatus Portiera aleyrodidarum to study the energy production capabilities using stoichiometric analysis. Strikingly, the results suggest that the energetic metabolism of the bacterial endosymbiont relies on the use of pathways related to the synthesis of amino acids and carotenoids. A deeper insight showed that the ATP production via carotenoid synthesis may also have a potential role in the regulation of amino acid production. The coupling of energy production to anabolism suggest that minimization of metabolic networks as a consequence of genome size reduction does not necessarily limit the biosynthetic potential of obligate endosymbionts.

Pantograph: A template-based method for genome-scale metabolic model reconstruction

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (02) ◽  
pp. 1550006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Loira ◽  
Anna Zhukova ◽  
David James Sherman
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Model Reconstruction ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Manual Curation ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Iterative Improvement ◽  
Genome Scale ◽  
Genome Scale Model ◽  
Template Reaction

Genome-scale metabolic models are a powerful tool to study the inner workings of biological systems and to guide applications. The advent of cheap sequencing has brought the opportunity to create metabolic maps of biotechnologically interesting organisms. While this drives the development of new methods and automatic tools, network reconstruction remains a time-consuming process where extensive manual curation is required. This curation introduces specific knowledge about the modeled organism, either explicitly in the form of molecular processes, or indirectly in the form of annotations of the model elements. Paradoxically, this knowledge is usually lost when reconstruction of a different organism is started. We introduce the Pantograph method for metabolic model reconstruction. This method combines a template reaction knowledge base, orthology mappings between two organisms, and experimental phenotypic evidence, to build a genome-scale metabolic model for a target organism. Our method infers implicit knowledge from annotations in the template, and rewrites these inferences to include them in the resulting model of the target organism. The generated model is well suited for manual curation. Scripts for evaluating the model with respect to experimental data are automatically generated, to aid curators in iterative improvement. We present an implementation of the Pantograph method, as a toolbox for genome-scale model reconstruction, curation and validation. This open source package can be obtained from: http://pathtastic.gforge.inria.fr .

scholarly journals Genome-Scale Model and Omics Analysis of Metabolic Capacities of Akkermansia muciniphila Reveal a Preferential Mucin-Degrading Lifestyle

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (18) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noora Ottman ◽  
Mark Davids ◽  
Maria Suarez-Diez ◽  
Sjef Boeren ◽  
Peter J. Schaap ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Proteome Analysis ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Bacterial Cells ◽  
Akkermansia Muciniphila ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Genome Scale ◽  
Genome Scale Model

ABSTRACT The composition and activity of the microbiota in the human gastrointestinal tract are primarily shaped by nutrients derived from either food or the host. Bacteria colonizing the mucus layer have evolved to use mucin as a carbon and energy source. One of the members of the mucosa-associated microbiota is Akkermansia muciniphila, which is capable of producing an extensive repertoire of mucin-degrading enzymes. To further study the substrate utilization abilities of A. muciniphila, we constructed a genome-scale metabolic model to test amino acid auxotrophy, vitamin biosynthesis, and sugar-degrading capacities. The model-supported predictions were validated by in vitro experiments, which showed A. muciniphila to be able to utilize the mucin-derived monosaccharides fucose, galactose, and N-acetylglucosamine. Growth was also observed on N-acetylgalactosamine, even though the metabolic model did not predict this. The uptake of these sugars, as well as the nonmucin sugar glucose, was enhanced in the presence of mucin, indicating that additional mucin-derived components are needed for optimal growth. An analysis of whole-transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) comparing the gene expression of A. muciniphila grown on mucin with that of the same bacterium grown on glucose confirmed the activity of the genes involved in mucin degradation and revealed most of these to be upregulated in the presence of mucin. The transcriptional response was confirmed by a proteome analysis, altogether revealing a hierarchy in the use of sugars and reflecting the adaptation of A. muciniphila to the mucosal environment. In conclusion, these findings provide molecular insights into the lifestyle of A. muciniphila and further confirm its role as a mucin specialist in the gut. IMPORTANCE Akkermansia muciniphila is among the most abundant mucosal bacteria in humans and in a wide range of other animals. Recently, A. muciniphila has attracted considerable attention because of its capacity to protect against diet-induced obesity in mouse models. However, the physiology of A. muciniphila has not been studied in detail. Hence, we constructed a genome-scale model and describe its validation by transcriptomic and proteomic approaches on bacterial cells grown on mucus and glucose, a nonmucus sugar. The results provide detailed molecular insight into the mucus-degrading lifestyle of A. muciniphila and further confirm the role of this mucin specialist in producing propionate and acetate under conditions of the intestinal tract.

scholarly journals Strategies for Enhancing in vitro Degradation of Linuron by Variovorax sp. Strain SRS 16 Under the Guidance of Metabolic Modeling

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kusum Dhakar ◽  
Raphy Zarecki ◽  
Daniella van Bommel ◽  
Nadav Knossow ◽  
Shlomit Medina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Manipulation ◽  
Nitrogen Sources ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Promoting Effect ◽  
Metabolic Potential ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Genome Scale

Phenyl urea herbicides are being extensively used for weed control in both agricultural and non-agricultural applications. Linuron is one of the key herbicides in this family and is in wide use. Like other phenyl urea herbicides, it is known to have toxic effects as a result of its persistence in the environment. The natural removal of linuron from the environment is mainly carried through microbial biodegradation. Some microorganisms have been reported to mineralize linuron completely and utilize it as a carbon and nitrogen source. Variovorax sp. strain SRS 16 is one of the known efficient degraders with a recently sequenced genome. The genomic data provide an opportunity to use a genome-scale model for improving biodegradation. The aim of our study is the construction of a genome-scale metabolic model following automatic and manual protocols and its application for improving its metabolic potential through iterative simulations. Applying flux balance analysis (FBA), growth and degradation performances of SRS 16 in different media considering the influence of selected supplements (potential carbon and nitrogen sources) were simulated. Outcomes are predictions for the suitable media modification, allowing faster degradation of linuron by SRS 16. Seven metabolites were selected for in vitro validation of the predictions through laboratory experiments confirming the degradation-promoting effect of specific amino acids (glutamine and asparagine) on linuron degradation and SRS 16 growth. Overall, simulations are shown to be efficient in predicting the degradation potential of SRS 16 in the presence of specific supplements. The generated information contributes to the understanding of the biochemistry of linuron degradation and can be further utilized for the development of new cleanup solutions without any genetic manipulation.

scholarly journals Genome-scale model reconstruction of the methylotrophic yeast Ogataea polymorpha

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulf W Liebal ◽  
Brigida A Fabry ◽  
Aarthi Ravikrishnan ◽  
Constantin VL Schedel ◽  
Simone Schmitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reference Model ◽  
Methylotrophic Yeast ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Distinct Advantage ◽  
Phenotype Microarray ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Genome Scale ◽  
Ogataea Polymorpha

Abstract Background Ogataea polymorpha is a thermotolerant, methylotrophic yeast with significant industrial applications. While previously mainly used for protein synthesis, it also holds promise for producing platform chemicals. O. polymorpha has the distinct advantage of using methanol as a substrate, which could be potentially derived from carbon capture and utilization streams. Full development of the organism into a production strain and estimation of the metabolic capabilities require additional strain design, guided by metabolic modeling with a genome-scale metabolic model. However, to date, no genome-scale metabolic model is available for O. polymorpha. Results To overcome this limitation, we used a published reconstruction of the closely related yeast Komagataella phaffii as a reference and corrected reactions based on KEGG and MGOB annotation. Additionally, we conducted phenotype microarray experiments to test the suitability of 190 substrates as carbon sources. Over three-quarter of the substrate use was correctly reproduced by the model and 27 new substrates were added, that were not present in the K. phaffii reference model. Conclusion The developed genome-scale metabolic model of O. polymorpha will support the engineering of synthetic metabolic capabilities and enable the optimization of production processes, thereby supporting a sustainable future methanol economy.

scholarly journals Predicting changes in renal metabolism after compound exposure with a genome-scale metabolic model

2021 ◽  
Vol 412 ◽  
pp. 115390
Author(s):  
Kristopher D. Rawls ◽  
Bonnie V. Dougherty ◽  
Kalyan C. Vinnakota ◽  
Venkat R. Pannala ◽  
Anders Wallqvist ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Renal Metabolism ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Compound Exposure ◽  
Genome Scale

scholarly journals Genome-Scale Metabolic Network Analysis of the Opportunistic Pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1

2008 ◽  
Vol 190 (8) ◽  
pp. 2790-2803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Oberhardt ◽  
Jacek Puchałka ◽  
Kimberly E. Fryer ◽  
Vítor A. P. Martins dos Santos ◽  
Jason A. Papin
Keyword(s):  
Pseudomonas Aeruginosa ◽  
Metabolic Network ◽  
Opportunistic Pathogen ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
Major Life ◽  
Metabolic Versatility ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Scale Properties ◽  
Genome Scale

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major life-threatening opportunistic pathogen that commonly infects immunocompromised patients. This bacterium owes its success as a pathogen largely to its metabolic versatility and flexibility. A thorough understanding of P. aeruginosa's metabolism is thus pivotal for the design of effective intervention strategies. Here we aim to provide, through systems analysis, a basis for the characterization of the genome-scale properties of this pathogen's versatile metabolic network. To this end, we reconstructed a genome-scale metabolic network of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. This reconstruction accounts for 1,056 genes (19% of the genome), 1,030 proteins, and 883 reactions. Flux balance analysis was used to identify key features of P. aeruginosa metabolism, such as growth yield, under defined conditions and with defined knowledge gaps within the network. BIOLOG substrate oxidation data were used in model expansion, and a genome-scale transposon knockout set was compared against in silico knockout predictions to validate the model. Ultimately, this genome-scale model provides a basic modeling framework with which to explore the metabolism of P. aeruginosa in the context of its environmental and genetic constraints, thereby contributing to a more thorough understanding of the genotype-phenotype relationships in this resourceful and dangerous pathogen.

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