Growth-rate dependency of ribosome abundance and translation elongation rate in Corynebacterium glutamicum differs from that in Escherichia coli
Susana Matamouros, Thomas Gensch, Martin Cerff, Christian Carsten Sachs, Iman Abdollahzadeh, Johnny Hendriks, Lucas Horst, Niklas Tenhaef, Julia Tenhaef, Stephan Noack, Michaela Graf, Ralf Takors, Katharina Nöh, Michael Bott
Abstract
Abstract Bacterial growth rate (µ) depends on the protein synthesis capacity of the cell and thus on the number of active ribosomes and their translation elongation rate. The relationship between these fundamental growth parameters have only been described for few bacterial species, in particular Escherichia coli . Here, we analyse the growth-rate dependency of ribosome abundance and translation elongation rate for Corynebacterium glutamicum , a gram-positive model species differing from E. coli by a lower growth temperature optimum and a lower maximal growth rate. We show that, unlike in E. coli , there is little change in ribosome abundance for µ <0.4 h −1 in C. glutamicum and the fraction of active ribosomes is kept above 70% while the translation elongation rate declines 5-fold. Mathematical modelling indicates that the decrease in the translation elongation rate can be explained by a depletion of translation precursors.