Resource plasticity-driven carbon-nitrogen budgeting enables specialization and division of labor in a clonal community

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

eLife

Abstract

Previously, we found that in glucose-limited Saccharomyces cerevisiae colonies, metabolic constraints drive cells into groups exhibiting gluconeogenic or glycolytic states. In that study, threshold amounts of trehalose-a limiting, produced carbon-resource, controls the emergence and self-organization of cells exhibiting the glycolytic state, serving as a carbon source that fuels glycolysis (Varahan et al., 2019). We now discover that the plasticity of use of a non-limiting resource, aspartate, controls both resource production and the emergence of heterogeneous cell states, based on differential metabolic budgeting. In gluconeogenic cells, aspartate is a carbon source for trehalose production, while in glycolytic cells using trehalose for carbon, aspartate is predominantly a nitrogen source for nucleotide synthesis. This metabolic plasticity of aspartate enables carbon-nitrogen budgeting, thereby driving the biochemical self-organization of distinct cell states. Through this organization, cells in each state exhibit true division of labor, providing growth/survival advantages for the whole community.

First Page

1

Last Page

26

DOI

10.7554/ELIFE.57609

Publication Date

9-1-2020

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