ArticleNature communications2020
A riboswitch gives rise to multi-generational phenotypic heterogeneity in an auxotrophic bacterium.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Engineering Streptococcus thermophilus for heterologous gene expression of cell envelope proteases from lactic acid bacteria.Microbial cell factories · 2026Article
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- Phenotypic heterogeneity follows a growth-viability tradeoff in response to amino acid identity.Nature communications · 2024Article
- A mutualistic bacterium rescues a green alga from an antagonist.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Metabolic exchanges are ubiquitous in natural microbial communities.Nature microbiology · 2023Review
- Methionine addition improves the acid tolerance of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum by altering cellular metabolic flux, energy distribution, lipids composition.Stress biology · 2022Article
- Streptococcus suis TrpX is part of a tryptophan uptake system, and its expression is regulated by a T-box regulatory element.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Diversity of bet-hedging strategies in microbial communities-Recent cases and insights.WIREs mechanisms of disease · 2022Review
- Riboswitch RSApplied and environmental microbiology · 2022Article
- Formulation of Chemically Defined Media and Growth Evaluation ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Enhancement of amino acid production and secretion byMetabolic engineering communications · 2020Article
- Exploring the synthetic biology potential of bacteriophages for engineering non-model bacteria.Nature communications · 2020Review
- Development ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Auxotrophy, the inability to produce an organic compound essential for growth, is widespread among bacteria. Auxotrophic bacteria rely on transporters to acquire these compounds from their environment. Here, we study the expression of both low- and high-affinity transporters of the costly amino acid methionine in an auxotrophic lactic acid bacterium, Lactococcus lactis. We show that the high-affinity transporter (Met-transporter) is heterogeneously expressed at low methionine concentrations, resulting in two isogenic subpopulations that sequester methionine in different ways: one subpopulation primarily relies on the high-affinity transporter (high expression of the Met-transporter) and the other subpopulation primarily relies on the low-affinity transporter (low expression of the Met-transporter). The phenotypic heterogeneity is remarkably stable, inherited for tens of generations, and apparent at the colony level. This heterogeneity results from a T-box riboswitch in the promoter region of the met operon encoding the high-affinity Met-transporter. We hypothesize that T-box riboswitches, which are commonly found in the Lactobacillales, may play as-yet unexplored roles in the predominantly auxotrophic lifestyle of these bacteria.
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