Evolutionary pressures on microbial metabolic strategies in the chemostat.

ABSTRACT: Protein expression is shaped by evolutionary processes that tune microbial fitness. The limited biosynthetic capacity of a cell constrains protein expression and forces the cell to carefully manage its protein economy. In a chemostat, the physiology of the cell feeds back on the growth conditions, hindering intuitive understanding of how changes in protein concentration affect fitness. Here, we aim to provide a theoretical framework that addresses the selective pressures and optimal evolutionary-strategies in the chemostat. We show that the optimal enzyme levels are the result of a trade-off between the cost of their production and the benefit of their catalytic function. We also show that deviations from optimal enzyme levels are directly related to selection coefficients. The maximal fit

SUBMITTER: Wortel MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4933952 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature