Authors
Ryan Thiermann, Jin Yang, Aniket Zodage, Fukang She, Danny K Fung, Taylor Rytlewski, Farshad Abdollah-Nia, Fangzhou Xiao, John T Sauls, Sarah Cox, Zulfar Ghulam-Jelani, Victoria Castillo, Quinn A Paulsen, David M Stevenson, Daniel Amador-Noguez, James R Williamson, Jue D Wang, Suckjoon Jun
Published in
Science (New York, N.Y.). Volume 392. Issue 6804. Pages eaeb6410. Jun 18, 2026. Epub Jun 18, 2026.
Abstract
Bacteria regulate homeostatic growth by adjusting proteome composition. In Escherichia coli, this coordination is mediated by guanosine tetraphosphate and pentaphosphate, collectively termed (p)ppGpp, which couple amino acid supply with ribsosome production. We identified a distinct architecture in Bacillus subtilis, in which guanosine triphosphate (GTP), not (p)ppGpp, controls proteome allocation. Translational inhibition resulted in GTP depletion and suppressed amino acid biosynthesis through feedback inhibition without altering ribosome abundance, establishing a regulated decoupling between total amino acid flux and proteome composition, with flux deviating from proteome-based predictions. By artificially adjusting GTP concentrations, we recoupled flux and proteome, restoring growth to maximal amounts. The regulated suboptimality enables a trade-off to balance growth and stress resilience. Similar GTP-based strategies were present in other Firmicute species, indicating possible evolutionary conservation. Proteome composition and metabolic flux have distinct regulatory layers in some bacteria.
PMID:
42313948
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 19 Jun 2026.
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