Probing Escherichia coli lipidome in varying environments

Abstract

Escherichia coli can survive and adapt to a wide range of environments, such as the colon and urinary tract. E. coli is protected from its environment by two layers of membranes, comprising of lipopolysaccharide and glycerophospholipids. Despite being a well-characterized model organism, there is a lack of consensus on the lipids of E. coli reported. This is attributed to factors including the methodologies, and the conditions the bacterium is grown in. The study first addressed the technical variability across the workflow for bacterial lipidomics, from sampling to bioanalysis. Next, the remodelling of the lipidome of E. coli was probed during growth in the common medium, lysogeny broth, as well as urine- and gut-mimicking media. This work corroborated earlier findings on the remodelling of cardiolipin during growth and further demonstrated distinct media-dependent variations in lipids as specific adaptations to environment and nutrient availability.