- Meeting ID: 867 6409 6440
- passcode: 149120
13h00 - 13h50 – Bianca Habermann (CNRS, Univ Aix-Marseille, IBDM)
Modeling the metabolism of bacterial warfare using constraint-based modelling
Myxococcus xanthus is a social bacterium with a very complex lifestyle that includes phases of collective or single-cell migration, kin recognition, collective predation behaviour, as well as fruiting body and spore formation during starvation. It is well known its ability to predate on other microorganisms, such as Escherichia coli as a collective, a phenomenon referred to as wolf-pack predation. We wanted to understand the metabolic changes taking place in both, predator and prey, when M. xanthus attacks and feeds on its prey, E. coli. Furthermore, we wanted to model the interaction between predator and prey using a multi-partner metabolic reconstruction in combination with constraint-based metabolic modelling. Here we will present the metabolic consequences of predation on the predator and its prey. We will present the first version of the M. xanthus genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) and introduce a multi-partner metabolic network linking M. xanthus to its prey, E. coli. Using constraint-based metabolic modelling and inspired by the Lotka-Volterra predation equations, we could recapitulate the interaction between predatory and prey and capture the population growth rates and dynamics of these two species during this predatory interaction.
Dernière modification le 13/11/2026