Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
2017
Department
Cell & Molecular Biology
Abstract
Shewanella piezotolerans strain WP3 belongs to the group 1 branch of the Shewanella genus and is a piezotolerant and psychrotolerant species isolated from the deep sea. In this study, a genome-scale model was constructed for WP3 using a combination of genome annotation, ortholog mapping, and physiological verification. The metabolic reconstruction contained 806 genes, 653 metabolites, and 922 reactions, including central metabolic functions that represented nonhomologous replacements between the group 1 and group 2 Shewanella species. Metabolic simulations with the WP3 model demonstrated consistency with existing knowledge about the physiology of the organism. A comparison of model simulations with experimental measurements verified the predicted growth profiles under increasing concentrations of carbon sources. The WP3 model was applied to study mechanisms of anaerobic respiration through investigating energy conservation, redox balancing, and the generation of proton motive force. Despite being an obligate respiratory organism, WP3 was predicted to use substrate-level phosphorylation as the primary source of energy conservation under anaerobic conditions, a trait previously identified in other Shewanella species. Further investigation of the ATP synthase activity revealed a positive correlation between the availability of reducing equivalents in the cell and the directionality of the ATP synthase reaction flux. Comparison of the WP3 model with an existing model of a group 2 species, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, revealed that the WP3 model demonstrated greater flexibility in ATP production under the anaerobic conditions. Such flexibility could be advantageous to WP3 for its adaptation to fluctuating availability of organic carbon sources in the deep sea.
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Dufault-Thompson K, Jian H, Cheng R, Li J, Wang F, Zhang Y. 2017. A genome-scale model of Shewanella piezotolerans simulates mechanisms of metabolic diversity and energy conservation. mSystems 2:e00165-16. https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems 2:e00165-16
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems 2:e00165-16
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comment
Keith Dufault-Thompson is affiliated with both the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. Ying Zhang is affiliated with the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology.