Skelding, D. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2018

Rapid evolution of an overt metabolic defect restores balanced growth

In eukaryotes, conserved mechanisms ensure that cell growth is coordinated with nutrient availability. Overactive growth during nutrient limitation ("nutrient-growth dysregulation") can lead to rapid cell death. Here, we demonstrate that cells can adapt to nutrient-growth dysregulation by evolving major metabolic defects. Specifically, when yeast lysine auxotrophic mutant lys- encountered lysine limitation, an evolutionarily novel stress, cells suffered nutrient-growth dysregulation. A sub-population repeatedly evolved to lose the ability to synthesize organosulfurs (lys-orgS-). Organosulfurs, mainly glutathione and glutathione conjugates, were released by lys- cells during lysine limitation when growth was dysregulated, but not during glucose limitation when growth was regulated. Limiting organosulfurs conferred a frequency-dependent fitness advantage to lys-orgS- by eliciting a proper slow growth program including autophagy. Thus, nutrient-growth dysregulation is associated with rapid organosulfur release, which enables the selection of organosulfur auxotrophy to better tune cell growth to the metabolic environment. We speculate that evolutionarily novel stresses can trigger atypical release of certain metabolites, setting the stage for the evolution of new ecological interactions.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Microscopy quantification of microbial birth and death dynamics

Microbes live in dynamic environments where nutrient concentrations fluctuate. Quantifying fitness (birth and death) in a wide range of environments is critical for understanding microbial evolution as well as ecological interactions where one species alters the fitness of another. Here, using high-throughput time-lapse microscopy, we have quantified how Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants incapable of synthesizing an essential metabolite grow or die in various concentrations of the required metabolite. We establish that cells normally expressing fluorescent proteins lose fluorescence upon death and that the total fluorescence in an imaging frame is proportional to the number of live cells even when cells form multiple layers. We validate our microscopy approach of measuring birth and death rates using flow cytometry, cell counting, and chemostat culturing. For lysine-requiring cells, very low concentrations of lysine are not detectably consumed and do not support cell birth, but delay the onset of death phase and reduce the death rate. In contrast, in low hypoxanthine, hypoxanthine-requiring cells can produce new cells, yet also die faster than in the absence of hypoxanthine. For both strains, birth rates under various metabolite concentrations are better described by the sigmoidal-shaped Moser model than the well-known Monod model, while death rates depend on the metabolite concentration and can vary with time. Our work reveals how time-lapse microscopy can be used to discover non-intuitive microbial dynamics and to quantify growth rates in many environments.

microbiology↗