Plants, most bacteria, and green algae use the methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway to synthesize the isoprenoid precursors dimethylallyl diphosphate and isopentyl diphosphate. While the early intermediates of the MEP pathway are formed from pyruvate and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate, dephosphorylated MEP pathway precursors are also used by some organisms to supplement the MEP pathway in an anaplerotic fashion. Exogenous supplementation of 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol to cultures of the colonial green algae Botryococcus braunii var Showa caused marked affects to the overall culture health and morphology. These affects were characterized, in part, by a significant increase in the population of bacterial symbionts associated with these cultures upon ME supplementation. However, our efforts to reproduce these results with isolated bacteria in a minimal media have largely been unsuccessful. While ME was capable of exerting a phenotypic modification to B. braunii cultures, our results suggest this modification is not a result of bacterial catabolism of the carbohydrate.

Studies on the effect of 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol supplementation on algal and bacterial cultures

245th National Meeting (2013)

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