Abstract

In Ralstonia solanacearum, a devastating phytopathogen whose metabolism is poorly understood, we observed that Entner-Doudoroff (ED) pathway and NonOxidative pentose phosphate pathway (OxPPP) bypasses glycolysis and OxPPP under glucose oxidation. Evidences derived from 13C stable isotopes feeding and genome annotation based comparative metabolic network analysis supported the observations. Comparative metabolic network analysis derived from the currently available 53 annotated R. solanacearum strains also including the recently reported strain (F1C1), representing the four phylotypes confirmed the lack of key genes coding for phosphofructokinase (pfk-1) and phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (gnd) enzymes that are relevant for glycolysis and OxPPP respectively. R. solanacearum F1C1 cells fed with 13C Glucose (99%[1-13C]- or 99%[1,2-13C]- or 40%[13C6]-glucose) followed by GC-MS based labelling analysis of fragments from amino acids, glycerol and ribose provided clear evidence that rather than Glycolysis and OxPPP, ED pathway and NonOxPPP are the main routes sustaining metabolism in R. solanacearum. The 13C incorporation in the mass ions of alanine (m/z 260, m/z 232); valine (m/z 288, m/z 260), glycine (m/z 218), serine (m/z 390, m/z 362), histidine (m/z 440, m/z 412), tyrosine (m/z 466, m/z 438), phenylalanine (m/z 336, m/z 308), glycerol (m/z 377) and ribose (m/z 160) mapped the pathways supporting the observations. The outcomes help better defining the central carbon metabolic network of R. solanacearum that can be integrated with 13C metabolic flux analysis as well as flux balance analysis studies for defining the metabolic phenotypes. ImportanceUnderstanding the metabolic versatility of Ralstonia solanacearum is important as it regulates the tradeoff between virulence and metabolism (1, 2) in a wide range of plant hosts. Due to a lack of clear evidence until this work, several published research papers reported on potential roles of Glycolysis and Oxidative pentose phosphate pathways (OxPPP) in R. solanacearum (3, 4). This work provided evidence from 13C stable isotopes feeding and genome annotation based comparative metabolic network analysis that Entner-Doudoroff pathway and Non-OxPPP bypasses glycolysis and OxPPP during the oxidation of Glucose, one of the host xylem pool that serves as a potential carbon source (5). The outcomes help better defining the central carbon metabolic network of R. solanacearum that can be integrated with 13C metabolic flux analysis as well as flux balance analysis studies for defining the metabolic phenotypes. The study highlights the need to critically examine phytopathogens whose metabolism is poorly understood.