Bacterial Glycogen Provides Short-Term Benefits in Changing Environments.

ABSTRACT: Changing nutritional conditions challenge microbes and shape their evolutionary optimization. Here, we used real-time metabolomics to investigate the role of glycogen in the dynamic physiological adaptation of Escherichia coli to fluctuating nutrients following carbon starvation. After the depletion of environmental glucose, we found significant metabolic activity remaining, which was linked to rapid utilization of intracellular glycogen. Glycogen was depleted by 80% within minutes of glucose starvation and was similarly replenished within minutes of glucose availability. These fast time scales of glycogen utilization correspond to the short-term benefits that glycogen provided to cells undergoing various physiological transitions. Cells capable of utilizing glycogen exhibited shorter lag

SUBMITTER: Sekar K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7170487 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature