Diverse bacteria exhibit superadditive growth on mixed classes of carbon sources

Many heterotrophic bacteria strains from four phyla show superadditive growth on a dilute mixture of all 64 carbon compounds, exceeding the weighted sum from subsets.

• Why it matters: Natural heterotrophs face diverse carbon mixtures, but it was unclear whether carbon-source diversity consistently boosts growth yield across taxa.
• What they did: Dozens of strains were grown on defined mixtures spanning five carbon-source classes, and exometabolomics, pooled genetic screens, and proteomics were used to link growth to metabolism; superadditivity was also predicted from genomes and correlated with sugar-over-acid preference.
• The result: Superadditive growth is linked to enhanced carbon consumption in the mixed-class medium and reduced reliance on amino acid and nucleotide biosynthesis, and it is genomically predictable within the tested strain panel.

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