https://doi.org/10.25678/0008MH
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Data for: Polysaccharide breakdown products drive degradation-dispersal cycles of foraging bacteria through changes in metabolism and motility

Most of Earth’s biomass is composed of polysaccharides. During biomass decomposition, polysaccharides are degraded by heterotrophic bacteria as a nutrient and energy source and are thereby partly remineralized into CO2. As polysaccharides are heterogeneously distributed in nature, following the colonization and degradation of a polysaccharide hotspot the cells need to reach new polysaccharide hotspots. Even though many studies indicate that these degradation-dispersal cycles contribute to the carbon flow in marine systems, we know little about how cells alternate between polysaccharide degradation and motility, and which environmental factors trigger this behavioral switch. Here, we studied the growth of the marine bacterium Vibrio cyclitrophicus ZF270 on the abundant marine polysaccharide alginate, both in its soluble polymeric form as well as on its breakdown products. We used microfluidics coupled to time-lapse microscopy to analyze motility and growth of individual cells, and RNA sequencing to study associated changes in gene expression. We found that single cells grow at reduced rate on alginate until they form large groups that cooperatively break down the polymer. Exposing cell groups to digested alginate accelerates cell growth and changes the expression of genes involved in alginate degradation and catabolism, central metabolism, ribosomal biosynthesis, and transport. However, exposure to digested alginate also triggers cells to become motile and disperse from cell groups, proportionally increasing with the group size before the nutrient switch, and this is accompanied by high expression of genes involved in flagellar assembly, chemotaxis, and quorum sensing. We found that motile cells chemotax toward polymeric but not digested alginate, likely enabling them to find new polysaccharide hotspots. Overall, our findings reveal cellular mechanisms that might also underlie bacterial degradation-dispersal cycles, which influence the remineralization of biomass in marine environments.

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The associated article

Stubbusch, A. K., Keegstra, J. M., Schwartzman, J., Pontrelli, S., Clerc, E. E., Charlton, S., et al. (2024). Polysaccharide breakdown products drive degradation-dispersal cycles of foraging bacteria through changes in metabolism and motility. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.93855.2
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Metadata

  Publication Data Package for:
Open Data Open Data
Long-term data Long-term data
Author
  • Stubbusch, Astrid
  • Ackermann, Martin
  • Dsouza, Glen
  • Keegstra, Johannes M.
  • Schwartzman, Julia
  • Pontrelli, Sammy
  • Clerc, Estelle E.
  • Charlton, Samuel
  • Stocker, Roman
  • Magnabosco, Cara
  • Schubert, Olga T.
Keywords cooperative polysaccharide degradation,colony formation,cell dispersal,glycan,alginate,exoenzymes,alginate lyases
Variables
  • gene_abundance
  • growth_rate
Substances (scientific names)
  • Alginate
Substances (generic terms)
  • polysaccharides
Taxa (scientific names)
  • Vibrio cyclitrophicus ZF270
Organisms (generic terms)
  • Vibrio cyclitrophicus ZF270
Systems
  • marine minimal medium
Timerange
  • 2019-10 TO 2024-10
Review Level none
Curator Stubbusch, Astrid
Contact Schubert, Olga <olga.schubert@eawag.ch>
DOI 10.25678/0008MH