A temperature-induced metabolic shift in the emerging human pathogen Photorhabdus asymbiotica

• Published in: mSystems 2024-11, Vol.9 (11), p.e0097023
• Main Authors: Carter, Elena Lucy, Waterfield, Nicholas R, Constantinidou, Chrystala, Alam, Mohammad Tauqeer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adaptation, Physiological; Animals; Automation; Bacteria; Bioluminescence; Biosynthesis; Body temperature; Drug resistance; Environmental conditions; Enzymes; flux balance analysis; Genes; genome scale model; Genomes; Growth conditions; Humans; Hydrocarbons; Infections; Mathematical models; metabolic modeling; Metabolism; Metabolites; Nutrient utilization; Pathogens; Photorhabdus; Photorhabdus - genetics; Photorhabdus - metabolism; Photorhabdus asymbiotica; Research Article; stress adaptation; Systems Biology; Temperature; Transcriptomics; Virulence
• ISSN: 2379-5077; 2379-5077
• DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00970-23

is a bacterial genus containing both insect and emerging human pathogens. Most insect-restricted species display temperature restriction, unable to grow above 34°C, while can grow at 37°C to infect mammalian hosts and cause Photorhabdosis. Metabolic adaptations have been proposed to facilitate the survival of this pathogen at higher temperatures, yet the biological mechanisms underlying these are poorly understood. We have reconstructed an extensively manually curated genome-scale metabolic model of (iEC1073, BioModels ID MODEL2309110001), validated through gene knockout and nutrient utilization experiments with an excellent agreement between experimental data and model predictions. Integration of iEC1073 with transcriptomics data obtained for at temperatures of 28°C and 37°C allowed the development of temperature-specific reconstructions representing metabolic adaptations the pathogen undergoes when shifting to a higher temperature in a mammalian compared to insect host. Analysis of these temperature-specific reconstructions reveals that nucleotide metabolism is enriched with predicted upregulated and downregulated reactions. iEC1073 could be used as a powerful tool to study the metabolism of in different genetic or environmental conditions. bacterial species contain both human and insect pathogens, and most of these species cannot grow in higher temperatures. However, , which infects both humans and insects, can grow in higher temperatures and undergoes metabolic adaptations at a temperature of 37°C compared to that of insect body temperature. Therefore, it is important to examine how this bacterial species can metabolically adapt to survive in higher temperatures. In this work, using a mathematical model, we have examined the metabolic shift that takes place when the bacteria switch from growth conditions in 28°C to 37°C. We show that potentially experiences predicted temperature-induced metabolic adaptations at 37°C predominantly clustered within the nucleotide metabolism pathway.