Nature Communications · 12 authors, 11 centres
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The authors reconstructed genome-scale metabolic models from 252 A. fumigatus strains and used them to predict how the lung microbiome composition affects fungal growth in cystic fibrosis patients. They found significant metabolic variation across strains and predicted that confirmed A. fumigatus colonization remodels the lung microbiome to a state more favorable to fungal growth.
The authors reconstructed a comprehensive pan-genome-scale metabolic model (pan-GEM) from 252 A. fumigatus strains (203 environmental, 49 clinical) collected in Germany, deriving strain-specific GEMs that varied from 1321 to 1402 reactions (mean 1361). Only 475 metabolic genes (61.7%) and 1108 metabolic reactions (76.9%) were shared across all strains, revealing substantial metabolic accessory content particularly in nucleotide, energy, and amino acid pathways. The study is computational and preclinical in nature; it does not constitute direct human clinical evidence. Limitations include reliance on the MAMBO in silico method to infer lung nutritional profiles, potential false-positive species in lung microbiome annotations, and genomic differences between the strain collection used for GEM construction and clinical strains in cystic fibrosis patients.
