Growth, metabolic partitioning, and the size of microorganisms
Name
Kempes-2012-Growth, metabolic pa.pdf
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545.39 KB
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Author(s)
Dutkiewicz, Stephanie
Kempes, Chris Poling
Follows, Michael J
Date Issued
December 2011
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Citation
Kempes, C. P., S. Dutkiewicz, and M. J. Follows. “Growth, Metabolic Partitioning, and the Size of Microorganisms.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109.2 (2011): 495–500. Copyright ©2011 by the National Academy of Sciences
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Population growth rate is a fundamental ecological and evolutionary characteristic of living organisms, but individuals must balance the metabolism devoted to biosynthesis and reproduction against the maintenance of existing structure and other functionality. Here we present a mathematical model that relates metabolic partitioning to the form of growth. The model captures the observed growth trajectory of single cells and individuals for a variety of species and taxa spanning prokaryotes, unicellular eukaryotes, and small multicellular eukaryotes. Our analysis suggests that the per-unit costs of biosynthesis and maintenance are conserved across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. However, the relative metabolic expenditure on growth and maintenance of whole organisms clearly differentiates taxa: prokaryotes spend an increasing fraction of their entire metabolism on growth with increasing cell size, whereas eukaryotes devote a diminishing fraction. These differences allow us to predict the minimum and maximum size for each taxonomic group, anticipating observed evolutionary life-history transitions. The framework provides energetic insights into taxonomic tradeoffs related to growth and metabolism and constrains traits that are important for size-structured modeling of microbial communities and their ecological and biogeochemical effects.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1115585109
