title: Metabolic Complementation in Bacterial Communities: Necessary Conditions and Optimality.
abstract: Bacterial communities may display metabolic complementation, in which different members of the association partially contribute to the same biosynthetic pathway. In this way, the end product of the pathway is synthesized by the community as a whole. However, the emergence and the benefits of such complementation are poorly understood. Herein, we present a simple model to analyze the metabolic interactions among bacteria, including the host in the case of endosymbiotic bacteria. The model considers two cell populations, with both cell types encoding for the same linear biosynthetic pathway. We have found that, for metabolic complementation to emerge as an optimal strategy, both product inhibition and large permeabilities are needed. In the light of these results, we then consider the patterns found in the case of tryptophan biosynthesis in the endosymbiont consortium hosted by the aphidCinara cedri. Usingin-silicocomputed physicochemical properties of metabolites of this and other biosynthetic pathways, we verified that the splitting point of the pathway corresponds to the most permeable intermediate.
authors: Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular I, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Complutense de MadridMadrid, Spain; Department of Physics, University of California, San DiegoLa Jolla, CA, USA.
authors: Matteo
authors: M
authors: Mori
authors: Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular I, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Madrid, Spain.
authors: Miguel
authors: M
authors: Ponce-de-León
authors: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Institute for Integrative Systems Biology, Universitat de València-CSIC Valencia, Spain.
authors: Juli
authors: J
authors: Peretó
authors: Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular I, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Madrid, Spain.
authors: Francisco
authors: F
authors: Montero
keywords: cross-feeding; endosymbiotic bacteria; kinetic modeling; metabolic complementation; metabolic modeling; optimization