title: Probing the metabolic water contribution to intracellular water using oxygen isotope ratios of PO4.
abstract: Knowledge of the relative contributions of different water sources to intracellular fluids and body water is important for many fields of study, ranging from animal physiology to paleoclimate. The intracellular fluid environment of cells is challenging to study due to the difficulties of accessing and sampling the contents of intact cells. Previous studies of multicelled organisms, mostly mammals, have estimated body water composition-including metabolic water produced as a byproduct of metabolism-based on indirect measurements of fluids averaged over the whole organism (e.g., blood) combined with modeling calculations. In microbial cells and aquatic organisms, metabolic water is not generally considered to be a significant component of intracellular water, due to the assumed unimpeded diffusion of water across cell membranes. Here we show that the (18)O/(16)O ratio of PO4 in intracellular biomolecules (e.g., DNA) directly reflects the O isotopic composition of intracellular water and thus may serve as a probe allowing direct sampling of the intracellular environment. We present two independent lines of evidence showing a significant contribution of metabolic water to the intracellular water of three environmentally diverse strains of bacteria. Our results indicate that ∼30-40% of O in PO4 comprising DNA/biomass in early stationary phase cells is derived from metabolic water, which bolsters previous results and also further suggests a constant metabolic water value for cells grown under similar conditions. These results suggest that previous studies assuming identical isotopic compositions for intracellular/extracellular water may need to be reconsidered.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109;
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109;
authors.forename: Sae Jung
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109; School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China ruth.blake@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Ruth E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Blake
mesh_terms: D000150:Acinetobacter / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D053520:Marinobacter / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010103:Oxygen Isotopes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010710:Phosphates / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D011551:Pseudomonas fluorescens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D010103:Oxygen Isotopes; D010710:Phosphates; D014867:Water; D010100:Oxygen
keywords: isotope probing; metabolic water; phosphate oxygen isotopes