Resource plasticity-driven carbon-nitrogen budgeting enables specialization and division of labor in a clonal community

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.57609
• Publication Date: 2020-09-01T15:00:27Z
• Authors: Sriram Varahan; Vaibhhav Sinha; Adhish Walvekar; Sandeep Krishna; Sunil Laxman
• Keywords: Carbon source; Limiting

Previously, we found that in glucose-limited Saccharomyces cerevisiae colonies, metabolic constraints drive cells into groups exhibiting gluconeogenic or glycolytic states. In study, threshold amounts of trehalose - a limiting, produced carbon-resource, controls the emergence and self-organization state, serving as carbon source fuels glycolysis (Varahan et al., 2019). We now discover plasticity use non-limiting resource, aspartate, both resource production heterogeneous cell states, based on differential budgeting. cells, aspartate is for production, while using carbon, predominantly nitrogen nucleotide synthesis. This enables carbon-nitrogen budgeting, thereby driving biochemical distinct Through this organization, each state exhibit true division labor, providing growth/survival advantages whole community.