The Architecture of Metabolic Networks Constrains the Evolution of Microbial Resource Hierarchies.

ABSTRACT: Microbial strategies for resource use are an essential determinant of their fitness in complex habitats. When facing environments with multiple nutrients, microbes often use them sequentially according to a preference hierarchy, resulting in well-known patterns of diauxic growth. In theory, the evolutionary diversification of metabolic hierarchies could represent a mechanism supporting coexistence and biodiversity by enabling temporal segregation of niches. Despite this ecologically critical role, the extent to which substrate preference hierarchies can evolve and diversify remains largely unexplored. Here, we used genome-scale metabolic modeling to systematically explore the evolution of metabolic hierarchies across a vast space of metabolic network genotypes. We find that only a limited

SUBMITTER: Takano S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10476156 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature