Bacterial Amino Acid Auxotrophies Enable Energetically Costlier Proteomes.

ABSTRACT: The outsourcing of amino acid (AA) production to the environment is relatively common across the tree of life. We recently showed that the massive loss of AA synthesis capabilities in animals is governed by selective pressure linked to the energy costs of AA production. Paradoxically, these AA auxotrophies facilitated the evolution of costlier proteomes in animals by enabling the increased use of energetically expensive AAs. Experiments in bacteria have shown that AA auxotrophies can provide a fitness advantage in competition with prototrophic strains. However, it remains unclear whether energy-related selection also drives the evolution of bacterial AA auxotrophies and whether this affects the usage of expensive AAs in bacterial proteomes. To investigate these questions, we computationall

SUBMITTER: Kasalo N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11900164 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature