Open AccessAcquisition of the arginine deiminase system benefits epiparasitic Saccharibacteria and their host bacteria in a mammalian niche environment
Author(s) -
Jing Tian,
Daniel R. Utter,
Lujia Cen,
PuTing Dong,
Wenyuan Shi,
Batbileg Bor,
Man Qin,
Jeffrey S. McLean,
Xuesong He
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2114909119
Subject(s) - biology , obligate , microbiome , bacteria , host (biology) , niche , metagenomics , arginine deiminase , genetics , comparative genomics , adaptation (eye) , microbiology and biotechnology , host adaptation , genome , arginine , genomics , gene , ecology , amino acid , neuroscience
Significance The Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR) is a large monophyletic lineage with poorly understood biology. Saccharibacteria are ultrasmall parasitic CPR bacteria with highly reduced genomes that have made the transition from an environmental origin to mammals. We tested the function and impact of the arginine deiminase system (ADS), an arginine catabolism pathway likely acquired by mammal-associated Saccharibacteria during their environment-to-mammal niche transition. We showed that the acquired ADS not only helped facilitate Saccharibacterial adaptation to mammals but also contributed to the establishment of cooperative episymbiotic interaction with their bacterial hosts within mammalian microbiomes. Our study provides experimental evidence demonstrating the importance of function acquired by Saccharibacteria during niche transition in facilitating their adaptation from the environment to a mammalian niche.