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J. Bacteriol. doi:10.1128/JB.01686-06
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

The performance of the translational apparatus varies with the ecological strategies of bacteria

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: tschmidt{at}msu.edu.

	Abstract

Protein synthesis is the predominant activity of growing bacteria: the protein synthesis system makes up more than half the cell's dry mass and consumes most of the cell's energy during rapid growth. Translation has been studied extensively in model organisms, and the translational apparatus is qualitatively similar in structure and function across all known life. However, little is known about variation between organisms in translational performance. Based on measurements of macromolecular content in a phylogenetically diverse collection of bacteria with contrasting ecological strategies, we show that translational power (the rate of protein synthesis normalized to the mass of the protein synthesis system) is 3-fold to 4-fold higher among bacteria that respond rapidly to nutrient availability than it is among slowly responding bacteria. Analysis of codon use in completely sequenced bacterial genomes confirms that the selective forces acting on translation vary with ecological strategy. We propose that differences in translational power result from ecologically-based variation among microbes in the relative importance of two competing benefits: reducing the biomass invested in the protein synthesis system, and reducing the energetic expense of protein synthesis.