Multicellular magnetotactic bacteria are genetically heterogeneous consortia with metabolically differentiated cells

作者：George A. Schaible, Zackary J. Jay, John Cliff, Frederik Schulz, Colin C. Gauvin, Danielle Goudeau, Rex R. Malmstrom, S. Emil Ruff, Virginia P. Edgcomb, Roland Hatzenpichler · 发表于：PLoS Biology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1371/journal.pbio.3002638 · 被引用次数：21 · 研究领域：Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies、Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology、Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils

Consortia of multicellular magnetotactic bacteria (MMB) are currently the only known example of bacteria without a unicellular stage in their life cycle. Because of their recalcitrance to cultivation, most previous studies of MMB have been limited to microscopic observations. To study the biology of these unique organisms in more detail, we use multiple culture-independent approaches to analyze the genomics and physiology of MMB consortia at single-cell resolution. We separately sequenced the metagenomes of 22 individual MMB consortia, representing 8 new species, and quantified the genetic diversity within each MMB consortium. This revealed that, counter to conventional views, cells within MMB consortia are not clonal. Single consortia metagenomes were then used to reconstruct the species-specific metabolic potential and infer the physiological capabilities of MMB. To validate genomic predictions, we performed stable isotope probing (SIP) experiments and interrogated MMB consortia using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) combined with nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS). By coupling FISH with bioorthogonal noncanonical amino acid tagging (BONCAT), we explored their in situ activity as well as variation of protein synthesis within cells. We demonstrate that MMB consortia are mixotrophic sulfate reducers and that they exhibit metabolic differentiation between individual cells, suggesting that MMB consortia are more complex than previously thought. These ...