Proteome evolution under non-substitutable resource limitation. Issue 1 (December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tamminen, Manu; Betz, Alexander; Pereira, Aaron; Thali, Marco; Matthews, Blake; Suter, Marc; Narwani, Anita
• Is Part Of: Nature communications. Volume 9:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 10
• Publication Date: 2018-12
• Subjects: Biology -- Periodicals; Physical sciences -- Periodicals; 505
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07106-z
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2041-1723

Abstract

Abstract Resource limitation is a major driver of the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of organisms. Short-term responses to resource limitation include plastic changes in molecular phenotypes including protein expression. Yet little is known about the evolution of the molecular phenotype under longer-term resource limitation. Here, we combine experimental evolution of the green algaChlamydomonas reinhardtii under multiple different non-substitutable resource limitation regimes with proteomic measurements to investigate evolutionary adaptation of the molecular phenotype. We demonstrate convergent proteomic evolution of core metabolic functions, including the Calvin-Benson cycle and gluconeogenesis, across different resource limitation environments. We do not observe proteomic changes consistent with optimized uptake of particular limiting resources. Instead, we report that adaptation proceeds in similar directions under different types of non-substitutable resource limitation. This largely convergent evolution of the expression of core metabolic proteins is associated with an improvement in the resource assimilation efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus into biomass. Organisms could respond to essential resource limitation by increasing metabolic efficiency or resource acquisition ability. Here, the authors experimentally evolve green algae under different resource limitations and show convergent evolution of core metabolism rather than resource specialization.