Genome-scale metabolic modeling of Aspergillus fumigatus strains reveals growth dependencies on the lung microbiome.

ABSTRACT: Aspergillus fumigatus, an opportunistic human pathogen, frequently infects the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis and is one of the most common causes of infectious-disease death in immunocompromised patients. Here, we construct 252 strain-specific, genome-scale metabolic models of this important fungal pathogen to study and better understand the metabolic component of its pathogenic versatility. The models show that 23.1% of A. fumigatus metabolic reactions are not conserved across strains and are mainly associated with amino acid, nucleotide, and nitrogen metabolism. Profiles of non-conserved reactions and growth-supporting reaction fluxes are sufficient to differentiate strains, for example by environmental or clinical origin. In addition, shotgun metagenomics analysis of sputum from

SUBMITTER: Mirhakkak MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10359302 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature