Swimming in light: a large-scale computational analysis of the metabolism of Dinoroseobacter shibae

PLoS Comput Biol. 2013;9(10):e1003224. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003224. Epub 2013 Oct 3.

Abstract

The Roseobacter clade is a ubiquitous group of marine α-proteobacteria. To gain insight into the versatile metabolism of this clade, we took a constraint-based approach and created a genome-scale metabolic model (iDsh827) of Dinoroseobacter shibae DFL12T. Our model is the first accounting for the energy demand of motility, the light-driven ATP generation and experimentally determined specific biomass composition. To cover a large variety of environmental conditions, as well as plasmid and single gene knock-out mutants, we simulated 391,560 different physiological states using flux balance analysis. We analyzed our results with regard to energy metabolism, validated them experimentally, and revealed a pronounced metabolic response to the availability of light. Furthermore, we introduced the energy demand of motility as an important parameter in genome-scale metabolic models. The results of our simulations also gave insight into the changing usage of the two degradation routes for dimethylsulfoniopropionate, an abundant compound in the ocean. A side product of dimethylsulfoniopropionate degradation is dimethyl sulfide, which seeds cloud formation and thus enhances the reflection of sunlight. By our exhaustive simulations, we were able to identify single-gene knock-out mutants, which show an increased production of dimethyl sulfide. In addition to the single-gene knock-out simulations we studied the effect of plasmid loss on the metabolism. Moreover, we explored the possible use of a functioning phosphofructokinase for D. shibae.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomass
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Metabolic Flux Analysis
  • Metabolic Networks and Pathways / genetics*
  • Metabolic Networks and Pathways / physiology*
  • Rhodobacteraceae / genetics*
  • Rhodobacteraceae / metabolism*
  • Rhodobacteraceae / physiology

Grants and funding

RR and NB are funded by the DFG via the Collaborative Research Centre Transregio 51 (http://roseobacter.de). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.