The Anabolic Network of Aromatoleum aromaticum EbN1T

The betaproteobacterium Aromatoleum aromaticum EbN1T is a well-studied model for facultative anaerobic degradation specialists. Systems biology-level investigations increasingly require the implementation of genome-wide metabolic models, which in turn are based on an in-depth understanding of all encoded/used metabolic reactions, including biosyntheses. Here, we revisited the genome of A. aromaticum EbN1T, integrating the comprehensive proteomic datasets to reconstruct/update the anabolic network.

In total, A. aromaticum EbN1T devotes 11.6% of its genome's coding space for anabolic purposes, i.e., 485 predicted proteins, of which 348 (71.7% coverage) were identified by mass spectrometry. In detail, 116 proteins were assigned to central anabolism, sugars, and precursors, 111 to amino acid, 43 to nucleotide, 50 to fatty acid, membrane lipid and isoprenoid, and 165 to vitamin and cofactor syntheses. Genes related to individual anabolic pathways are often scattered across the chromosome (except for e.g. histidine or heme d1 biosynthesis). This contrasts the mostly operon-like gene arrangements in the case of the recently reported catabolic network of A. aromaticum EbN1T [Microb Physiol. 2024;1‒77].

Taken together, the here described anabolic network in conjunction with the recently reported catabolic network facilitate future systems biology-level investigations of the environmental model bacterium A. aromaticum EbN1T.