Probing the metabolic water contribution to intracellular water using oxygen isotope ratios of PO4
Significance Conventional thought holds that the stable isotopic composition (O and H) of water inside the cells of microorganisms and most aquatic macroorganisms is identical to that of the surrounding water. This assumption is widely applied in studies of environmental reconstruction. Results presented here, based on techniques of multilabeled water isotope probing and measurement of 18O/16O ratios in PO4 moieties of intracellular biomolecules, which allows direct sampling of intracellular environments, demonstrate a significant metabolic water component in intracellular water that is consistent across multiple strains of bacteria when grown under similar conditions. The intracellular water probe presented here, based on PO4 d18O in DNA/biomass, may be extended to other biomolecules and organisms. Knowledge of the relative contributions of different water sources to intracellular fluids and body water is important for many fields of study, ranging from animal physiology to paleoclimate. The intracellular fluid environment of cells is challenging to study due to the difficulties of accessing and sampling the contents of intact cells. Previous studies of multicelled organisms, mostly mammals, have estimated body water composition including metabolic water produced as a byproduct of metabolism based on indirect measurements of fluids averaged over the whole organism (e.g. blood) combined with modeling calculations. In microbial cells and aquatic organisms, metabolic water is not generally considered to be a significant component of intracellular water, due to the assumed unimpeded diffusion of water across cell membranes. Here we show that the 18O/16O ratio of PO4 in intracellular biomolecules (e.g. DNA) directly reflects the O isotopic composition of intracellular water and thus may serve as a probe allowing direct sampling of the intracellular environment. We present two independent lines of evidence showing a significant contribution of metabolic water to the intracellular water of three environmentally diverse strains of bacteria. Our results indicate that ~30 40% of O in PO4 comprising DNA/biomass in early stationary phase cells is derived from metabolic water, which bolsters previous results and also further suggests a constant metabolic water value for cells grown under similar conditions. These results suggest that previous studies assuming identical isotopic compositions for intracellular/extracellular water may need to be reconsidered.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences