Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28542503›Full record

ArticlePLoS genetics2017

Biofilm microenvironment induces a widespread adaptive amino-acid fermentation pathway conferring strong fitness advantage in Escherichia coli.

Sylvie Létoffé, Sabina Chalabaev, José Dugay, Franziska Stressmann, Bianca Audrain, Jean-Charles Portais, Fabien Letisse, Jean-Marc Ghigo

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS genetics, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
14citing papers in PubMed
1.1field-weighted citation impact, top 23% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

14 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Commercial and on-farm microbial bioinputs production systems: challenges, opportunities and current Brazilian regulatory framework.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2026
    Review
  2. Article
  3. Oxygen microenvironments inMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021
    Article
  9. High-resolution structure of the alcohol dehydrogenase domain of the bifunctional bacterial enzyme AdhE.Acta crystallographica. Section F, Structural biology communications · 2020
    Article
  10. Adaptation ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2020
    Review
  11. Phototrophic Lactate Utilization byApplied and environmental microbiology · 2019
    Article
  12. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Sylvie LétofféInstitut Pasteur, Genetics of Biofilms Laboratory. 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, France.
Sabina ChalabaevInstitut Pasteur, Genetics of Biofilms Laboratory. 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, France.
José DugayAnalytical, Bioanalytical Sciences and Miniaturization Laboratory, CNRS UMR CBI 8231, ESPCI Paris, 10 rue Vauquelin, Paris, France.
Franziska StressmannInstitut Pasteur, Genetics of Biofilms Laboratory. 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, France.
Bianca AudrainInstitut Pasteur, Genetics of Biofilms Laboratory. 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, France.
Jean-Charles PortaisLISBP, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, INRA, INSA, Toulouse, France.
Fabien LetisseLISBP, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, INRA, INSA, Toulouse, France.
Jean-Marc GhigoInstitut Pasteur, Genetics of Biofilms Laboratory. 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, France.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6528-118X
Institut Pasteur · FRCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique · FR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Bacterial metabolism has been studied primarily in liquid cultures, and exploration of other natural growth conditions may reveal new aspects of bacterial biology. Here, we investigate metabolic changes occurring when Escherichia coli grows as surface-attached biofilms, a common but still poorly characterized bacterial lifestyle. We show that E. coli adapts to hypoxic conditions prevailing within biofilms by reducing the amino acid threonine into 1-propanol, an important industrial commodity not known to be naturally produced by Enterobacteriaceae. We demonstrate that threonine degradation corresponds to a fermentation process maintaining cellular redox balance, which confers a strong fitness advantage during anaerobic and biofilm growth but not in aerobic conditions. Whereas our study identifies a fermentation pathway known in Clostridia but previously undocumented in Enterobacteriaceae, it also provides novel insight into how growth in anaerobic biofilm microenvironments can trigger adaptive metabolic pathways edging out competition with in mixed bacterial communities.

Indexed as

Adaptation, PhysiologicalBiofilmsFermentation1-PropanolEscherichia coliOxygenThreonine1-PropanolOxygenThreonine

Identifiers

PMID28542503
PMCPMC5459495
OpenAlexW2614534905

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.