Interspecies Metabolic Complementation in Cystic Fibrosis Pathogens Via Purine Exchange

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease frequently associated with chronic lung infections caused by a consortium of pathogens. It is common for auxotrophy (the inability to biosynthesize certain essential metabolites) to develop in clinical isolates of the dominant CF pathogen , indicating that the CF lung environment is replete in various nutrients. Many of these nutrients are likely to come from the host tissues, but some may come from the surrounding polymicrobial community within the lungs of CF patients as well. To assess the feasibility of nutrient exchange within the polymicrobial community of the CF lung, we selected and , two of the most prevalent species found in the CF lung environment. By comparing the polymicrobial culture of wild-type strains relative to their purine auxotrophic counterparts, we were able to observe metabolic complementation occurring in both and when grown with a purine-producing cross-species pair. While our data indicate that some of this complementation is likely derived from extracellular DNA freed by lysis of by the highly competitive , the partial complementation of purine deficiency by demonstrates that bidirectional nutrient exchange between these classic competitors is possible.