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Onesto V, Forciniti S, Alemanno F, Narayanankutty K, Chandra A, Prasad S, Azzariti A, Gigli G, Barra A, De Martino A, De Martino D, del Mercato LL. Probing Single-Cell Fermentation Fluxes and Exchange Networks via pH-Sensing Hybrid Nanofibers. ACS NANO 2023; 17:3313-3323. [PMID: 36573897 PMCID: PMC9979640 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c06114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
The homeostatic control of their environment is an essential task of living cells. It has been hypothesized that, when microenvironmental pH inhomogeneities are induced by high cellular metabolic activity, diffusing protons act as signaling molecules, driving the establishment of exchange networks sustained by the cell-to-cell shuttling of overflow products such as lactate. Despite their fundamental role, the extent and dynamics of such networks is largely unknown due to the lack of methods in single-cell flux analysis. In this study, we provide direct experimental characterization of such exchange networks. We devise a method to quantify single-cell fermentation fluxes over time by integrating high-resolution pH microenvironment sensing via ratiometric nanofibers with constraint-based inverse modeling. We apply our method to cell cultures with mixed populations of cancer cells and fibroblasts. We find that the proton trafficking underlying bulk acidification is strongly heterogeneous, with maximal single-cell fluxes exceeding typical values by up to 3 orders of magnitude. In addition, a crossover in time from a networked phase sustained by densely connected "hubs" (corresponding to cells with high activity) to a sparse phase dominated by isolated dipolar motifs (i.e., by pairwise cell-to-cell exchanges) is uncovered, which parallels the time course of bulk acidification. Our method addresses issues ranging from the homeostatic function of proton exchange to the metabolic coupling of cells with different energetic demands, allowing for real-time noninvasive single-cell metabolic flux analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Onesto
- Institute
of Nanotechnology, National Research Council
(CNR-NANOTEC), c/o Campus Ecotekne, via Monteroni, 73100Lecce, Italy
| | - Stefania Forciniti
- Institute
of Nanotechnology, National Research Council
(CNR-NANOTEC), c/o Campus Ecotekne, via Monteroni, 73100Lecce, Italy
| | - Francesco Alemanno
- Institute
of Nanotechnology, National Research Council
(CNR-NANOTEC), c/o Campus Ecotekne, via Monteroni, 73100Lecce, Italy
- Dipartimento
di Matematica e Fisica E. De Giorgi, University
of Salento, 73100Lecce, Italy
- Istituto
Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Lecce, 73100Lecce, Italy
| | | | - Anil Chandra
- Institute
of Nanotechnology, National Research Council
(CNR-NANOTEC), c/o Campus Ecotekne, via Monteroni, 73100Lecce, Italy
| | - Saumya Prasad
- Institute
of Nanotechnology, National Research Council
(CNR-NANOTEC), c/o Campus Ecotekne, via Monteroni, 73100Lecce, Italy
| | - Amalia Azzariti
- IRCCS
Istituto Tumori Giovanni Paolo II, V.le O. Flacco, 65, 70124Bari, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Gigli
- Institute
of Nanotechnology, National Research Council
(CNR-NANOTEC), c/o Campus Ecotekne, via Monteroni, 73100Lecce, Italy
- Dipartimento
di Matematica e Fisica E. De Giorgi, University
of Salento, 73100Lecce, Italy
| | - Adriano Barra
- Dipartimento
di Matematica e Fisica E. De Giorgi, University
of Salento, 73100Lecce, Italy
- Istituto
Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Lecce, 73100Lecce, Italy
| | - Andrea De Martino
- Politecnico
di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, I-10129Torino, Italy
- Italian Institute
for Genomic Medicine, IRCCS Candiolo, SP-142, I-10060Candiolo, Italy
| | - Daniele De Martino
- Biofisika
Institutua (UPV/EHU, CSIC) and Fundación Biofísica Bizkaia, LeioaE-48940, Spain
- Ikerbasque
Foundation, Bilbao48013, Spain
| | - Loretta L. del Mercato
- Institute
of Nanotechnology, National Research Council
(CNR-NANOTEC), c/o Campus Ecotekne, via Monteroni, 73100Lecce, Italy
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Batista-Tomás AR, De Martino A, Mulet R. Path-integral solution of MacArthur's resource-competition model for large ecosystems with random species-resources couplings. CHAOS (WOODBURY, N.Y.) 2021; 31:103113. [PMID: 34717338 DOI: 10.1063/5.0046972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2021] [Accepted: 09/22/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
We solve MacArthur's resource-competition model with random species-resource couplings in the "thermodynamic" limit of infinitely many species and resources using dynamical path integrals à la De Domincis. We analyze how the steady state picture changes upon modifying several parameters, including the degree of heterogeneity of metabolic strategies (encoding the preferences of species) and of maximal resource levels (carrying capacities), and discuss its stability. Ultimately, the scenario obtained by other approaches is recovered by analyzing an effective one-species-one-resource ecosystem that is fully equivalent to the original multi-species one. The technique used here can be applied for the analysis of other model ecosystems related to the version of MacArthur's model considered here.
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Affiliation(s)
- A R Batista-Tomás
- Group of Complex Systems and Statistical Physics, Department of Applied Physics, Physics Faculty, University of Havana, La Habana 10400, Cuba
| | - Andrea De Martino
- Soft and Living Matter Lab, Institute of Nanotechnology (CNR-NANOTEC), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome 00185, Italy
| | - Roberto Mulet
- Group of Complex Systems and Statistical Physics, Department of Applied Physics, Physics Faculty, University of Havana, La Habana 10400, Cuba
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Tourigny DS. Cooperative metabolic resource allocation in spatially-structured systems. J Math Biol 2021; 82:5. [PMID: 33479850 DOI: 10.1007/s00285-021-01558-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2019] [Revised: 06/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/27/2020] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Natural selection has shaped the evolution of cells and multi-cellular organisms such that social cooperation can often be preferred over an individualistic approach to metabolic regulation. This paper extends a framework for dynamic metabolic resource allocation based on the maximum entropy principle to spatiotemporal models of metabolism with cooperation. Much like the maximum entropy principle encapsulates 'bet-hedging' behaviour displayed by organisms dealing with future uncertainty in a fluctuating environment, its cooperative extension describes how individuals adapt their metabolic resource allocation strategy to further accommodate limited knowledge about the welfare of others within a community. The resulting theory explains why local regulation of metabolic cross-feeding can fulfil a community-wide metabolic objective if individuals take into consideration an ensemble measure of total population performance as the only form of global information. The latter is likely supplied by quorum sensing in microbial systems or signalling molecules such as hormones in multi-cellular eukaryotic organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- David S Tourigny
- Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 630 West 168th Street, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
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