Shifts in growth strategies reflect tradeoffs in cellular economics

Abstract The growth rate‐dependent regulation of cell size, ribosomal content, and metabolic efficiency follows a common pattern in unicellular organisms: with increasing growth rates, cell size and ribosomal content increase and a shift to energetically inefficient metabolism takes place. The latte...

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Main Authors: Douwe Molenaar, Rogier van Berlo, Dick de Ridder, Bas Teusink
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer Nature 2009-11-01
Series:Molecular Systems Biology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2009.82
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author Douwe Molenaar
Rogier van Berlo
Dick de Ridder
Bas Teusink
author_facet Douwe Molenaar
Rogier van Berlo
Dick de Ridder
Bas Teusink
author_sort Douwe Molenaar
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The growth rate‐dependent regulation of cell size, ribosomal content, and metabolic efficiency follows a common pattern in unicellular organisms: with increasing growth rates, cell size and ribosomal content increase and a shift to energetically inefficient metabolism takes place. The latter two phenomena are also observed in fast growing tumour cells and cell lines. These patterns suggest a fundamental principle of design. In biology such designs can often be understood as the result of the optimization of fitness. Here we show that in basic models of self‐replicating systems these patterns are the consequence of maximizing the growth rate. Whereas most models of cellular growth consider a part of physiology, for instance only metabolism, the approach presented here integrates several subsystems to a complete self‐replicating system. Such models can yield fundamentally different optimal strategies. In particular, it is shown how the shift in metabolic efficiency originates from a tradeoff between investments in enzyme synthesis and metabolic yields for alternative catabolic pathways. The models elucidate how the optimization of growth by natural selection shapes growth strategies.
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institution Kabale University
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publishDate 2009-11-01
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series Molecular Systems Biology
spelling doaj-art-baa1a5504fa54e42b114ea4c034f1f6c2025-08-24T11:59:33ZengSpringer NatureMolecular Systems Biology1744-42922009-11-015111010.1038/msb.2009.82Shifts in growth strategies reflect tradeoffs in cellular economicsDouwe Molenaar0Rogier van Berlo1Dick de Ridder2Bas Teusink3Centre for Integrative Bioinformatics (IBIVU), Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamInformation and Communication Theory Group, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of TechnologyInformation and Communication Theory Group, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of TechnologyCentre for Integrative Bioinformatics (IBIVU), Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamAbstract The growth rate‐dependent regulation of cell size, ribosomal content, and metabolic efficiency follows a common pattern in unicellular organisms: with increasing growth rates, cell size and ribosomal content increase and a shift to energetically inefficient metabolism takes place. The latter two phenomena are also observed in fast growing tumour cells and cell lines. These patterns suggest a fundamental principle of design. In biology such designs can often be understood as the result of the optimization of fitness. Here we show that in basic models of self‐replicating systems these patterns are the consequence of maximizing the growth rate. Whereas most models of cellular growth consider a part of physiology, for instance only metabolism, the approach presented here integrates several subsystems to a complete self‐replicating system. Such models can yield fundamentally different optimal strategies. In particular, it is shown how the shift in metabolic efficiency originates from a tradeoff between investments in enzyme synthesis and metabolic yields for alternative catabolic pathways. The models elucidate how the optimization of growth by natural selection shapes growth strategies.https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2009.82growthmetabolic efficiencyoverflow metabolismribosome contentWarburg effect
spellingShingle Douwe Molenaar
Rogier van Berlo
Dick de Ridder
Bas Teusink
Shifts in growth strategies reflect tradeoffs in cellular economics
Molecular Systems Biology
growth
metabolic efficiency
overflow metabolism
ribosome content
Warburg effect
title Shifts in growth strategies reflect tradeoffs in cellular economics
title_full Shifts in growth strategies reflect tradeoffs in cellular economics
title_fullStr Shifts in growth strategies reflect tradeoffs in cellular economics
title_full_unstemmed Shifts in growth strategies reflect tradeoffs in cellular economics
title_short Shifts in growth strategies reflect tradeoffs in cellular economics
title_sort shifts in growth strategies reflect tradeoffs in cellular economics
topic growth
metabolic efficiency
overflow metabolism
ribosome content
Warburg effect
url https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2009.82
work_keys_str_mv AT douwemolenaar shiftsingrowthstrategiesreflecttradeoffsincellulareconomics
AT rogiervanberlo shiftsingrowthstrategiesreflecttradeoffsincellulareconomics
AT dickderidder shiftsingrowthstrategiesreflecttradeoffsincellulareconomics
AT basteusink shiftsingrowthstrategiesreflecttradeoffsincellulareconomics