Acetate Metabolism and the Inhibition of Bacterial Growth by Acetate

During aerobic growth on glucose, Escherichia coli excretes acetate, a mechanism called “overflow metabolism.” At high concentrations, the secreted acetate inhibits growth. Several mechanisms have been proposed for explaining this phenomenon, but a thorough analysis is hampered by the diversity of experimental conditions and strains used in these studies. Here, we describe the construction of a set of isogenic strains that remove different parts of the metabolic network involved in acetate metabolism. Analysis of these strains reveals that (i) high concentrations of acetate in the medium inhibit growth without significantly perturbing central metabolism; (ii) growth inhibition persists even when acetate assimilation is completely blocked; and (iii) regulatory interactions mediated by acetyl-phosphate play a small but significant role in growth inhibition by acetate. The major contribution to growth inhibition by acetate may originate in systemic effects like the uncoupling effect of organic acids or the perturbation of the anion composition of the cell, as previously proposed. Our data suggest, however, that under the conditions considered here, the uncoupling effect plays only a limited role. IMPORTANCE High concentrations of organic acids such as acetate inhibit growth of Escherichia coli and other bacteria. This phenomenon is of interest for understanding bacterial physiology but is also of practical relevance. Growth inhibition by organic acids underlies food preservation and causes problems during high-density fermentation in biotechnology. What causes this phenomenon? Classical explanations invoke the uncoupling effect of acetate and the establishment of an anion imbalance. Here, we propose and investigate an alternative hypothesis: the perturbation of acetate metabolism due to the inflow of excess acetate. We find that this perturbation accounts for 20% of the growth-inhibitory effect through a modification of the acetyl phosphate concentration. Moreover, we argue that our observations are not expected based on uncoupling alone.