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Self-Establishing Communities: A Yeast Model to Study the Physiological Impact of Metabolic Cooperation in Eukaryotic Cells

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Yeast Systems Biology

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2049))

Abstract

All biosynthetically active cells are able to export and import metabolites, the small molecule intermediaries of metabolism. In dense cell populations, this hallmark of cells results in the intercellular exchange of a wide spectrum of metabolites. Such metabolite exchange enables metabolic specialization of individual cells, leading to far reaching biological implications, as a consequence of the intrinsic connection between metabolism and cell physiology. In this chapter, we discuss methods on how to study metabolite exchange interactions by using self-establishing metabolically cooperating communities (SeMeCos) in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. SeMeCos exploit the stochastic segregation of episomes to progressively increase the number of essential metabolic interdependencies in a community that grows out from an initially prototrophic cell. By coupling genotype to metabotype, SeMeCos allow for the tracking of cells while they specialize metabolically and hence the opportunity to study their progressive change in physiology.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Susann Zilkenat for critical comments and proofreading of the manuscript. Work in the Ralser lab was supported by the Francis Crick Institute which receives its core funding from Cancer Research UK (FC001134), the UK Medical Research Council (FC001134), and the Wellcome Trust (FC001134), and received specific funding from the Wellcome Trust (RG 200829/Z/16/Z).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Kate Campbell

  2. The Molecular Biology of Metabolism Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK

    Clara Correia-Melo & Markus Ralser

  3. Department of Biochemistry and Cambridge Systems Biology Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Clara Correia-Melo

  4. Institute of Biochemistry, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany

    Markus Ralser

Authors
  1. Kate Campbell
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  2. Clara Correia-Melo
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  3. Markus Ralser
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kate Campbell or Markus Ralser .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Cambridge Systems Biology Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Stephen G. Oliver

  2. Genetadi Biotech, Parque Tecnológico de Bizkaia, Biscay, Spain

    Juan I. Castrillo

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Campbell, K., Correia-Melo, C., Ralser, M. (2019). Self-Establishing Communities: A Yeast Model to Study the Physiological Impact of Metabolic Cooperation in Eukaryotic Cells. In: Oliver, S.G., Castrillo, J.I. (eds) Yeast Systems Biology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2049. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9736-7_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9736-7_16

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-9735-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-9736-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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