Systems-level Responses to Salinity and Temperature Variations in the Marine Bacterium Vibrio natriegens

Vibrio natriegens strain ATCC 14048 is a salt marsh isolate with a notably rapid growth rate that has garnered considerable interest for biotechnological applications. We used systems-level tools (i.e. metabolomics, transcriptomics, proteomics) to characterize its physiological response to different salinities and temperatures that are relevant not only to its natural environment but also to planned scalable culturing processes. We found organic osmolyte synthesis and membrane transporters were most responsive to changes in salinity. The osmolytes glutamate, glutamine and ectoine responded to salinity across temperature treatments. However, when media was supplemented with choline, glycine betaine appeared to replace ectoine. These results provide a baseline data set for metabolic activity under a variety of conditions that will influence future basic and applied V. natriegens research. Vibrio natriegens strain ATCC 14048 was grown in a modified minimal medium at three different temperatures and in three different salinities. Cells were collected for RNA, metabolite and protein extractions.