Metabolic Heterogeneity and Cross-Feeding in Bacterial Multicellular Systems

Overview

Journal Trends Microbiol

Date 2020 Aug 12

PMID 32781027

Citations 33

Authors

Christopher R Evans

Christopher P Kempes

Alexa Price-Whelan

Lars E P Dietrich

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Cells in assemblages differentiate and perform distinct roles. Though many pathways of differentiation are understood at the molecular level in multicellular eukaryotes, the elucidation of similar processes in bacterial assemblages is recent and ongoing. Here, we discuss examples of bacterial differentiation, focusing on cases in which distinct metabolisms coexist and those that exhibit cross-feeding, with one subpopulation producing substrates that are metabolized by a second subpopulation. We describe several studies of single-species systems, then segue to studies of multispecies metabolic heterogeneity and cross-feeding in the clinical setting. Many of the studies described exemplify the application of new techniques and modeling approaches that provide insights into metabolic interactions relevant for bacterial growth outside the laboratory.

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