Genome degradation of host-restricted mutualistic endosymbionts has been attributed to inactivating mutations and genetic drift while genes coding for host-relevant functions are conserved by purifying selection. Unlike their free-living relatives, the metabolism of mutualistic endosymbionts and endosymbiont-originated organelles is specialized in the production of metabolites which are released to the host. This specialization suggests that natural selection crafted these metabolic adaptations. In this work, we analyzed the evolution of the metabolism of the chromatophore of Paulinella chromatophora by in silico modeling. We asked whether genome reduction is driven by metabolic engineering strategies resulted from the interaction with the host. As its widely known, the loss of enzyme coding genes leads to metabolic network restructuring sometimes improving the production rates. In this case, the production rate of reduced-carbon in the metabolism of the chromatophore.

We reconstructed the metabolic networks of the chromatophore of P. chromatophora CCAC 0185 and a close free-living relative, the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. WH 5701. We found that the evolution of free-living to host-restricted lifestyle rendered a fragile metabolic network where >80% of genes in the chromatophore are essential for metabolic functionality. Despite the lack of experimental information, the metabolic reconstruction of the chromatophore suggests that the host provides several metabolites to the endosymbiont. By using these metabolites as intracellular conditions, in silico simulations of genome evolution by gene lose recover with 77% accuracy the actual metabolic gene content of the chromatophore. Also, the metabolic model of the chromatophore allowed us to predict by flux balance analysis a maximum rate of reduced-carbon released by the endosymbiont to the host. By inspecting the central metabolism of the chromatophore and the free-living cyanobacteria we found that by improvements in the gluconeogenic pathway the metabolism of the endosymbiont uses more efficiently the carbon source for reduced-carbon production. In addition, our in silico simulations of the evolutionary process leading to the reduced metabolic network of the chromatophore showed that the predicted rate of released reduced-carbon is obtained in less than 5% of the times under a process guided by random gene deletion and genetic drift. We interpret previous findings as evidence that natural selection at holobiont level shaped the rate at which reduced-carbon is exported to the host. Finally, our model also predicts that the ABC phosphate transporter (pstSACB) which is conserved in the genome of the chromatophore of P. chromatophora strain CCAC 0185 is a necessary component to release reduced-carbon molecules to the host.

Our evolutionary analysis suggests that in the case of Paulinella chromatophora natural selection at the holobiont level played a prominent role in shaping the metabolic specialization of the chromatophore. We propose that natural selection acted as a “metabolic engineer” by favoring metabolic restructurings that led to an increased release of reduced-carbon to the host.