Stress-Induced Cooperation Promotes Tolerance in Resource-Limited Auxotrophic Microbial Consortia
Reyes-Gonzalez, D.; De Luna-Valenciano, H.; Santos-Escobar, F.; Rebolleda-Gomez, M.; Pena-Miller, R. P.; Fuentes Hernandez, A.
Show abstract
Microbial communities often rely on metabolic cooperation, especially under nutrient limitation, but how antibiotics influence these interactions remains unclear. Here, we show that exposure to chloramphenicol, a ribosome-targeting bacteriostatic antibiotic, promotes cooperation in auxotrophic Escherichia coli consortia. Using a proteome-partition model, we find that chloramphenicol-induced growth inhibition elevates levels of the alarmone ppGpp, shifting proteome allocation toward amino acid biosynthesis and export. This regulatory response enhances cross-feeding and supports cooperative growth, even under antibiotic stress. Laboratory experiments confirm that, under low amino acid availability, co-cultures of leucine and phenylalanine auxotrophs display greater tolerance to chloramphenicol than monocultures. Both our theoretical and experimental results reveal a feedback loop in which antibiotic stress strengthens metabolic interdependence, buffering growth inhibition and enhancing community-level tolerance.
Matching journals
The top 5 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- A salvaging strategy enables stable metabolite provisioning among free-living bacteria 97%
- The Predicted Metabolic Function of the Gut Microbiota of Drosophila melanogaster 95%
- Allosteric Regulation of Pyruvate Kinase Enables Efficient and Robust Gluconeogenesis by Preventing Metabolic Conflicts and Carbon Overflow 94%
Similar papers in this journal
- Tradeoffs in bacterial physiology determine the efficiency of antibiotic killing 97%
- The evolution of autonomy from two cooperative specialists in fluctuating environments 96%
- Coordination of gene expression with cell size enables Escherichia coli to efficiently maintain motility across conditions 95%
Similar papers in this journal
- Resource competition predicts assembly of in vitro gut bacterial communities 96%
- Cells reshape habitability of temperature by secreting antioxidants to help each other replicate and avoid population extinction 94%
- Risk-reward trade-off in motility endurance generates dichotomy in search strategies among copiotrophic marine bacteria 94%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.