Novel metabolic pathways in Archaea.

Science.gov (United States)

Sato, Takaaki; Atomi, Haruyuki

2011-06-01

The Archaea harbor many metabolic pathways that differ to previously recognized classical pathways. Glycolysis is carried out by modified versions of the Embden-Meyerhof and Entner-Doudoroff pathways. Thermophilic archaea have recently been found to harbor a bi-functional fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase/phosphatase for gluconeogenesis. A number of novel pentose-degrading pathways have also been recently identified. In terms of anabolic metabolism, a pathway for acetate assimilation, the methylaspartate cycle, and two CO2-fixing pathways, the 3-hydroxypropionate/4-hydroxybutyrate cycle and the dicarboxylate/4-hydroxybutyrate cycle, have been elucidated. As for biosynthetic pathways, recent studies have clarified the enzymes responsible for several steps involved in the biosynthesis of inositol phospholipids, polyamine, coenzyme A, flavin adeninedinucleotide and heme. By examining the presence/absence of homologs of these enzymes on genome sequences, we have found that the majority of these enzymes and pathways are specific to the Archaea. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Predicting metabolic pathways by sub-network extraction.

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Faust, Karoline; van Helden, Jacques

2012-01-01

Various methods result in groups of functionally related genes obtained from genomes (operons, regulons, syntheny groups, and phylogenetic profiles), transcriptomes (co-expression groups) and proteomes (modules of interacting proteins). When such groups contain two or more enzyme-coding genes, graph analysis methods can be applied to extract a metabolic pathway that interconnects them. We describe here the way to use the Pathway extraction tool available on the NeAT Web server ( http://rsat.ulb.ac.be/neat/ ) to piece together the metabolic pathway from a group of associated, enzyme-coding genes. The tool identifies the reactions that can be catalyzed by the products of the query genes (seed reactions), and applies sub-graph extraction algorithms to extract from a metabolic network a sub-network that connects the seed reactions. This sub-network represents the predicted metabolic pathway. We describe here the pathway prediction process in a step-by-step way, give hints about the main parametric choices, and illustrate how this tool can be used to extract metabolic pathways from bacterial genomes, on the basis of two study cases: the isoleucine-valine operon in Escherichia coli and a predicted operon in Cupriavidus (Ralstonia) metallidurans.

Regulation of dual glycolytic pathways for fructose metabolism in heterofermentative Lactobacillus panis PM1.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Tae Sun; Korber, Darren R; Tanaka, Takuji

2013-12-01

Lactobacillus panis PM1 belongs to the group III heterofermentative lactobacilli that use the 6-phosphogluconate/phosphoketolase (6-PG/PK) pathway as their central metabolic pathway and are reportedly unable to grow on fructose as a sole carbon source. We isolated a variant PM1 strain capable of sporadic growth on fructose medium and observed its distinctive characteristics of fructose metabolism. The end product pattern was different from what is expected in typical group III lactobacilli using the 6-PG/PK pathway (i.e., more lactate, less acetate, and no mannitol). In addition, in silico analysis revealed the presence of genes encoding most of critical enzymes in the Embden-Meyerhof (EM) pathway. These observations indicated that fructose was metabolized via two pathways. Fructose metabolism in the PM1 strain was influenced by the activities of two enzymes, triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) and glucose 6-phosphate isomerase (PGI). A lack of TPI resulted in the intracellular accumulation of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) in PM1, the toxicity of which caused early growth cessation during fructose fermentation. The activity of PGI was enhanced by the presence of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (GAP), which allowed additional fructose to enter into the 6-PG/PK pathway to avoid toxicity by DHAP. Exogenous TPI gene expression shifted fructose metabolism from heterolactic to homolactic fermentation, indicating that TPI enabled the PM1 strain to mainly use the EM pathway for fructose fermentation. These findings clearly demonstrate that the balance in the accumulation of GAP and DHAP determines the fate of fructose metabolism and the activity of TPI plays a critical role during fructose fermentation via the EM pathway in L. panis PM1.

Primary Metabolic Pathways and Metabolic Flux Analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Villadsen, John

2015-01-01

his chapter introduces the metabolic flux analysis (MFA) or stoichiometry-based MFA, and describes the quantitative basis for MFA. It discusses the catabolic pathways in which free energy is produced to drive the cell-building anabolic pathways. An overview of these primary pathways provides...... the reader who is primarily trained in the engineering sciences with atleast a preliminary introduction to biochemistry and also shows how carbon is drained off the catabolic pathways to provide precursors for cell mass building and sometimes for important industrial products. The primary pathways...... to be examined in the following are: glycolysis, primarily by the EMP pathway, but other glycolytic pathways is also mentioned; fermentative pathways in which the redox generated in the glycolytic reactions are consumed; reactions in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, which produce biomass precursors and redox...

Synthetic Metabolic Pathways

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topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Synthetic Metabolic Pathways: Methods and Protocols aims to ensure successful results in the further study...

Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, and Musculoskeletal Disease: Common Inflammatory Pathways Suggest a Central Role for Loss of Muscle Integrity

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Kelsey H. Collins

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Inflammation can arise in response to a variety of stimuli, including infectious agents, tissue injury, autoimmune diseases, and obesity. Some of these responses are acute and resolve, while others become chronic and exert a sustained impact on the host, systemically, or locally. Obesity is now recognized as a chronic low-grade, systemic inflammatory state that predisposes to other chronic conditions including metabolic syndrome (MetS. Although obesity has received considerable attention regarding its pathophysiological link to chronic cardiovascular conditions and type 2 diabetes, the musculoskeletal (MSK complications (i.e., muscle, bone, tendon, and joints that result from obesity-associated metabolic disturbances are less frequently interrogated. As musculoskeletal diseases can lead to the worsening of MetS, this underscores the imminent need to understand the cause and effect relations between the two, and the convergence between inflammatory pathways that contribute to MSK damage. Muscle mass is a key predictor of longevity in older adults, and obesity-induced sarcopenia is a significant risk factor for adverse health outcomes. Muscle is highly plastic, undergoes regular remodeling, and is responsible for the majority of total body glucose utilization, which when impaired leads to insulin resistance. Furthermore, impaired muscle integrity, defined as persistent muscle loss, intramuscular lipid accumulation, or connective tissue deposition, is a hallmark of metabolic dysfunction. In fact, many common inflammatory pathways have been implicated in the pathogenesis of the interrelated tissues of the musculoskeletal system (e.g., tendinopathy, osteoporosis, and osteoarthritis. Despite these similarities, these diseases are rarely evaluated in a comprehensive manner. The aim of this review is to summarize the common pathways that lead to musculoskeletal damage and disease that result from and contribute to MetS. We propose the overarching

Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, and Musculoskeletal Disease: Common Inflammatory Pathways Suggest a Central Role for Loss of Muscle Integrity.

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Collins, Kelsey H; Herzog, Walter; MacDonald, Graham Z; Reimer, Raylene A; Rios, Jaqueline L; Smith, Ian C; Zernicke, Ronald F; Hart, David A

2018-01-01

Inflammation can arise in response to a variety of stimuli, including infectious agents, tissue injury, autoimmune diseases, and obesity. Some of these responses are acute and resolve, while others become chronic and exert a sustained impact on the host, systemically, or locally. Obesity is now recognized as a chronic low-grade, systemic inflammatory state that predisposes to other chronic conditions including metabolic syndrome (MetS). Although obesity has received considerable attention regarding its pathophysiological link to chronic cardiovascular conditions and type 2 diabetes, the musculoskeletal (MSK) complications (i.e., muscle, bone, tendon, and joints) that result from obesity-associated metabolic disturbances are less frequently interrogated. As musculoskeletal diseases can lead to the worsening of MetS, this underscores the imminent need to understand the cause and effect relations between the two, and the convergence between inflammatory pathways that contribute to MSK damage. Muscle mass is a key predictor of longevity in older adults, and obesity-induced sarcopenia is a significant risk factor for adverse health outcomes. Muscle is highly plastic, undergoes regular remodeling, and is responsible for the majority of total body glucose utilization, which when impaired leads to insulin resistance. Furthermore, impaired muscle integrity, defined as persistent muscle loss, intramuscular lipid accumulation, or connective tissue deposition, is a hallmark of metabolic dysfunction. In fact, many common inflammatory pathways have been implicated in the pathogenesis of the interrelated tissues of the musculoskeletal system (e.g., tendinopathy, osteoporosis, and osteoarthritis). Despite these similarities, these diseases are rarely evaluated in a comprehensive manner. The aim of this review is to summarize the common pathways that lead to musculoskeletal damage and disease that result from and contribute to MetS. We propose the overarching hypothesis that there

Curation and Computational Design of Bioenergy-Related Metabolic Pathways

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Karp, Peter D. [SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (United States)

2014-09-12

Pathway Tools is a systems-biology software package written by SRI International (SRI) that produces Pathway/Genome Databases (PGDBs) for organisms with a sequenced genome. Pathway Tools also provides a wide range of capabilities for analyzing predicted metabolic networks and user-generated omics data. More than 5,000 academic, industrial, and government groups have licensed Pathway Tools. This user community includes researchers at all three DOE bioenergy centers, as well as academic and industrial metabolic engineering (ME) groups. An integral part of the Pathway Tools software is MetaCyc, a large, multiorganism database of metabolic pathways and enzymes that SRI and its academic collaborators manually curate. This project included two main goals: I. Enhance the MetaCyc content of bioenergy-related enzymes and pathways. II. Develop computational tools for engineering metabolic pathways that satisfy specified design goals, in particular for bioenergy-related pathways. In part I, SRI proposed to significantly expand the coverage of bioenergy-related metabolic information in MetaCyc, followed by the generation of organism-specific PGDBs for all energy-relevant organisms sequenced at the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI). Part I objectives included: 1: Expand the content of MetaCyc to include bioenergy-related enzymes and pathways. 2: Enhance the Pathway Tools software to enable display of complex polymer degradation processes. 3: Create new PGDBs for the energy-related organisms sequenced by JGI, update existing PGDBs with new MetaCyc content, and make these data available to JBEI via the BioCyc website. In part II, SRI proposed to develop an efficient computational tool for the engineering of metabolic pathways. Part II objectives included: 4: Develop computational tools for generating metabolic pathways that satisfy specified design goals, enabling users to specify parameters such as starting and ending compounds, and preferred or disallowed intermediate compounds

Pathway confirmation and flux analysis of central metabolic pathways in Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tang, Yinjie; Pingitore, Francesco; Mukhopadhyay, Aindrila; Phan, Richard; Hazen, Terry C.; Keasling, Jay D.

2006-01-01

It has been proposed that during growth under anaerobic or oxygen-limited conditions Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 uses the serine-isocitrate lyase pathway common to many methylotrophic anaerobes, in which formaldehyde produced from pyruvate is condensed with glycine to form serine. The serine is then transformed through hydroxypyruvate and glycerate to enter central metabolism at phosphoglycerate. To examine its use of the serine-isocitrate lyase pathway under anaerobic conditions, we grew S. oneidensis MR-1 on [1-13C] lactate as the sole carbon source with either trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) or fumarate as an electron acceptor. Analysis of cellular metabolites indicates that a large percentage (>75 percent) of lactate was partially oxidized to either acetate or pyruvate. The 13C isotope distributions in amino acids and other key metabolites indicate that, under anaerobic conditions, a complete serine pathway is not present, and lactate is oxidized via a highly reversible serine degradation pathway. The labeling data also suggest significant activity in the anaplerotic (malic enzyme and phosphoenolpyruvatecarboxylase) and glyoxylate shunt (isocitrate lyase and malate synthase) reactions. Although the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle is often observed to be incomplete in many other anaerobes (absence of 2-oxoglutaratede hydrogenase activity), isotopic labeling supports the existence of a complete TCA cycle in S. oneidensis MR-1 under TMAO reduction condition

Stress transgenerationally programs metabolic pathways linked to altered mental health.

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Kiss, Douglas; Ambeskovic, Mirela; Montina, Tony; Metz, Gerlinde A S

2016-12-01

Stress is among the primary causes of mental health disorders, which are the most common reason for disability worldwide. The ubiquity of these disorders, and the costs associated with them, lends a sense of urgency to the efforts to improve prediction and prevention. Down-stream metabolic changes are highly feasible and accessible indicators of pathophysiological processes underlying mental health disorders. Here, we show that remote and cumulative ancestral stress programs central metabolic pathways linked to mental health disorders. The studies used a rat model consisting of a multigenerational stress lineage (the great-great-grandmother and each subsequent generation experienced stress during pregnancy) and a transgenerational stress lineage (only the great-great-grandmother was stressed during pregnancy). Urine samples were collected from adult male F4 offspring and analyzed using 1 H NMR spectroscopy. The results of variable importance analysis based on random variable combination were used for unsupervised multivariate principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis, as well as metabolite set enrichment analysis (MSEA) and pathway analysis. We identified distinct metabolic profiles associated with the multigenerational and transgenerational stress phenotype, with consistent upregulation of hippurate and downregulation of tyrosine, threonine, and histamine. MSEA and pathway analysis showed that these metabolites are involved in catecholamine biosynthesis, immune responses, and microbial host interactions. The identification of metabolic signatures linked to ancestral programming assists in the discovery of gene targets for future studies of epigenetic regulation in pathogenic processes. Ultimately, this research can lead to biomarker discovery for better prediction and prevention of mental health disorders.

Reconstruction and flux analysis of coupling between metabolic pathways of astrocytes and neurons: application to cerebral hypoxia

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Akιn Ata

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background It is a daunting task to identify all the metabolic pathways of brain energy metabolism and develop a dynamic simulation environment that will cover a time scale ranging from seconds to hours. To simplify this task and make it more practicable, we undertook stoichiometric modeling of brain energy metabolism with the major aim of including the main interacting pathways in and between astrocytes and neurons. Model The constructed model includes central metabolism (glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway, TCA cycle, lipid metabolism, reactive oxygen species (ROS detoxification, amino acid metabolism (synthesis and catabolism, the well-known glutamate-glutamine cycle, other coupling reactions between astrocytes and neurons, and neurotransmitter metabolism. This is, to our knowledge, the most comprehensive attempt at stoichiometric modeling of brain metabolism to date in terms of its coverage of a wide range of metabolic pathways. We then attempted to model the basal physiological behaviour and hypoxic behaviour of the brain cells where astrocytes and neurons are tightly coupled. Results The reconstructed stoichiometric reaction model included 217 reactions (184 internal, 33 exchange and 216 metabolites (183 internal, 33 external distributed in and between astrocytes and neurons. Flux balance analysis (FBA techniques were applied to the reconstructed model to elucidate the underlying cellular principles of neuron-astrocyte coupling. Simulation of resting conditions under the constraints of maximization of glutamate/glutamine/GABA cycle fluxes between the two cell types with subsequent minimization of Euclidean norm of fluxes resulted in a flux distribution in accordance with literature-based findings. As a further validation of our model, the effect of oxygen deprivation (hypoxia on fluxes was simulated using an FBA-derivative approach, known as minimization of metabolic adjustment (MOMA. The results show the power of the

Aligning Metabolic Pathways Exploiting Binary Relation of Reactions.

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Yiran Huang

Full Text Available Metabolic pathway alignment has been widely used to find one-to-one and/or one-to-many reaction mappings to identify the alternative pathways that have similar functions through different sets of reactions, which has important applications in reconstructing phylogeny and understanding metabolic functions. The existing alignment methods exhaustively search reaction sets, which may become infeasible for large pathways. To address this problem, we present an effective alignment method for accurately extracting reaction mappings between two metabolic pathways. We show that connected relation between reactions can be formalized as binary relation of reactions in metabolic pathways, and the multiplications of zero-one matrices for binary relations of reactions can be accomplished in finite steps. By utilizing the multiplications of zero-one matrices for binary relation of reactions, we efficiently obtain reaction sets in a small number of steps without exhaustive search, and accurately uncover biologically relevant reaction mappings. Furthermore, we introduce a measure of topological similarity of nodes (reactions by comparing the structural similarity of the k-neighborhood subgraphs of the nodes in aligning metabolic pathways. We employ this similarity metric to improve the accuracy of the alignments. The experimental results on the KEGG database show that when compared with other state-of-the-art methods, in most cases, our method obtains better performance in the node correctness and edge correctness, and the number of the edges of the largest common connected subgraph for one-to-one reaction mappings, and the number of correct one-to-many reaction mappings. Our method is scalable in finding more reaction mappings with better biological relevance in large metabolic pathways.

Ensemble Modeling for Robustness Analysis in engineering non-native metabolic pathways.

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Lee, Yun; Lafontaine Rivera, Jimmy G; Liao, James C

2014-09-01

Metabolic pathways in cells must be sufficiently robust to tolerate fluctuations in expression levels and changes in environmental conditions. Perturbations in expression levels may lead to system failure due to the disappearance of a stable steady state. Increasing evidence has suggested that biological networks have evolved such that they are intrinsically robust in their network structure. In this article, we presented Ensemble Modeling for Robustness Analysis (EMRA), which combines a continuation method with the Ensemble Modeling approach, for investigating the robustness issue of non-native pathways. EMRA investigates a large ensemble of reference models with different parameters, and determines the effects of parameter drifting until a bifurcation point, beyond which a stable steady state disappears and system failure occurs. A pathway is considered to have high bifurcational robustness if the probability of system failure is low in the ensemble. To demonstrate the utility of EMRA, we investigate the bifurcational robustness of two synthetic central metabolic pathways that achieve carbon conservation: non-oxidative glycolysis and reverse glyoxylate cycle. With EMRA, we determined the probability of system failure of each design and demonstrated that alternative designs of these pathways indeed display varying degrees of bifurcational robustness. Furthermore, we demonstrated that target selection for flux improvement should consider the trade-offs between robustness and performance. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Signaling Pathways Regulating Redox Balance in Cancer Metabolism.

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De Santis, Maria Chiara; Porporato, Paolo Ettore; Martini, Miriam; Morandi, Andrea

2018-01-01

The interplay between rewiring tumor metabolism and oncogenic driver mutations is only beginning to be appreciated. Metabolic deregulation has been described for decades as a bystander effect of genomic aberrations. However, for the biology of malignant cells, metabolic reprogramming is essential to tackle a harsh environment, including nutrient deprivation, reactive oxygen species production, and oxygen withdrawal. Besides the well-investigated glycolytic metabolism, it is emerging that several other metabolic fluxes are relevant for tumorigenesis in supporting redox balance, most notably pentose phosphate pathway, folate, and mitochondrial metabolism. The relationship between metabolic rewiring and mutant genes is still unclear and, therefore, we will discuss how metabolic needs and oncogene mutations influence each other to satisfy cancer cells' demands. Mutations in oncogenes, i.e., PI3K/AKT/mTOR, RAS pathway, and MYC, and tumor suppressors, i.e., p53 and liver kinase B1, result in metabolic flexibility and may influence response to therapy. Since metabolic rewiring is shaped by oncogenic driver mutations, understanding how specific alterations in signaling pathways affect different metabolic fluxes will be instrumental for the development of novel targeted therapies. In the era of personalized medicine, the combination of driver mutations, metabolite levels, and tissue of origins will pave the way to innovative therapeutic interventions.

Modelling central metabolic fluxes by constraint-based optimization reveals metabolic reprogramming of developing Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) fruit.

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Colombié, Sophie; Nazaret, Christine; Bénard, Camille; Biais, Benoît; Mengin, Virginie; Solé, Marion; Fouillen, Laëtitia; Dieuaide-Noubhani, Martine; Mazat, Jean-Pierre; Beauvoit, Bertrand; Gibon, Yves

2015-01-01

Modelling of metabolic networks is a powerful tool to analyse the behaviour of developing plant organs, including fruits. Guided by our current understanding of heterotrophic metabolism of plant cells, a medium-scale stoichiometric model, including the balance of co-factors and energy, was constructed in order to describe metabolic shifts that occur through the nine sequential stages of Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) fruit development. The measured concentrations of the main biomass components and the accumulated metabolites in the pericarp, determined at each stage, were fitted in order to calculate, by derivation, the corresponding external fluxes. They were used as constraints to solve the model by minimizing the internal fluxes. The distribution of the calculated fluxes of central metabolism were then analysed and compared with known metabolic behaviours. For instance, the partition of the main metabolic pathways (glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway, etc.) was relevant throughout fruit development. We also predicted a valid import of carbon and nitrogen by the fruit, as well as a consistent CO2 release. Interestingly, the energetic balance indicates that excess ATP is dissipated just before the onset of ripening, supporting the concept of the climacteric crisis. Finally, the apparent contradiction between calculated fluxes with low values compared with measured enzyme capacities suggest a complex reprogramming of the metabolic machinery during fruit development. With a powerful set of experimental data and an accurate definition of the metabolic system, this work provides important insight into the metabolic and physiological requirements of the developing tomato fruits. © 2014 The Authors The Plant Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Invariability of Central Metabolic Flux Distribution in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 Under Environmental or Genetic Perturbations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tang, Yinjie; Martin, Hector Garcia; Deutschbauer, Adam; Feng, Xueyang; Huang, Rick; Llora, Xavier; Arkin, Adam; Keasling, Jay D.

2009-04-21

An environmentally important bacterium with versatile respiration, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, displayed significantly different growth rates under three culture conditions: minimal medium (doubling time {approx} 3 hrs), salt stressed minimal medium (doubling time {approx} 6 hrs), and minimal medium with amino acid supplementation (doubling time {approx}1.5 hrs). {sup 13}C-based metabolic flux analysis indicated that fluxes of central metabolic reactions remained relatively constant under the three growth conditions, which is in stark contrast to the reported significant changes in the transcript and metabolite profiles under various growth conditions. Furthermore, ten transposon mutants of S. oneidensis MR-1 were randomly chosen from a transposon library and their flux distributions through central metabolic pathways were revealed to be identical, even though such mutational processes altered the secondary metabolism, for example, glycine and C1 (5,10-Me-THF) metabolism.

Preferential use of central metabolism in vivo reveals a nutritional basis for polymicrobial infection.

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Christopher J Alteri

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The human genitourinary tract is a common anatomical niche for polymicrobial infection and a leading site for the development of bacteremia and sepsis. Most uncomplicated, community-acquired urinary tract infections (UTI are caused by Escherichia coli, while another bacterium, Proteus mirabilis, is more often associated with complicated UTI. Here, we report that uropathogenic E. coli and P. mirabilis have divergent requirements for specific central pathways in vivo despite colonizing and occupying the same host environment. Using mutants of specific central metabolism enzymes, we determined glycolysis mutants lacking pgi, tpiA, pfkA, or pykA all have fitness defects in vivo for P. mirabilis but do not affect colonization of E. coli during UTI. Similarly, the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway is required only for P. mirabilis in vivo. In contrast, gluconeogenesis is required only for E. coli fitness in vivo. The remarkable difference in central pathway utilization between E. coli and P. mirabilis during experimental UTI was also observed for TCA cycle mutants in sdhB, fumC, and frdA. The distinct in vivo requirements between these pathogens suggest E. coli and P. mirabilis are not direct competitors within host urinary tract nutritional niche. In support of this, we found that co-infection with E. coli and P. mirabilis wild-type strains enhanced bacterial colonization and persistence of both pathogens during UTI. Our results reveal that complementary utilization of central carbon metabolism facilitates polymicrobial disease and suggests microbial activity in vivo alters the host urinary tract nutritional niche.

Preferential Use of Central Metabolism In Vivo Reveals a Nutritional Basis for Polymicrobial Infection

Science.gov (United States)

Alteri, Christopher J.; Himpsl, Stephanie D.; Mobley, Harry L. T.

2015-01-01

The human genitourinary tract is a common anatomical niche for polymicrobial infection and a leading site for the development of bacteremia and sepsis. Most uncomplicated, community-acquired urinary tract infections (UTI) are caused by Escherichia coli, while another bacterium, Proteus mirabilis, is more often associated with complicated UTI. Here, we report that uropathogenic E. coli and P. mirabilis have divergent requirements for specific central pathways in vivo despite colonizing and occupying the same host environment. Using mutants of specific central metabolism enzymes, we determined glycolysis mutants lacking pgi, tpiA, pfkA, or pykA all have fitness defects in vivo for P. mirabilis but do not affect colonization of E. coli during UTI. Similarly, the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway is required only for P. mirabilis in vivo. In contrast, gluconeogenesis is required only for E. coli fitness in vivo. The remarkable difference in central pathway utilization between E. coli and P. mirabilis during experimental UTI was also observed for TCA cycle mutants in sdhB, fumC, and frdA. The distinct in vivo requirements between these pathogens suggest E. coli and P. mirabilis are not direct competitors within host urinary tract nutritional niche. In support of this, we found that co-infection with E. coli and P. mirabilis wild-type strains enhanced bacterial colonization and persistence of both pathogens during UTI. Our results reveal that complementary utilization of central carbon metabolism facilitates polymicrobial disease and suggests microbial activity in vivo alters the host urinary tract nutritional niche. PMID:25568946

Novel personalized pathway-based metabolomics models reveal key metabolic pathways for breast cancer diagnosis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Huang, Sijia; Chong, Nicole; Lewis, Nathan

2016-01-01

diagnosis. We applied this method to predict breast cancer occurrence, in combination with correlation feature selection (CFS) and classification methods. Results: The resulting all-stage and early-stage diagnosis models are highly accurate in two sets of testing blood samples, with average AUCs (Area Under.......993. Moreover, important metabolic pathways, such as taurine and hypotaurine metabolism and the alanine, aspartate, and glutamate pathway, are revealed as critical biological pathways for early diagnosis of breast cancer. Conclusions: We have successfully developed a new type of pathway-based model to study...... metabolomics data for disease diagnosis. Applying this method to blood-based breast cancer metabolomics data, we have discovered crucial metabolic pathway signatures for breast cancer diagnosis, especially early diagnosis. Further, this modeling approach may be generalized to other omics data types for disease...

Understanding specificity in metabolic pathways-Structural biology of human nucleotide metabolism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Welin, Martin; Nordlund, Paer

2010-01-01

Interactions are the foundation of life at the molecular level. In the plethora of activities in the cell, the evolution of enzyme specificity requires the balancing of appropriate substrate affinity with a negative selection, in order to minimize interactions with other potential substrates in the cell. To understand the structural basis for enzyme specificity, the comparison of structural and biochemical data between enzymes within pathways using similar substrates and effectors is valuable. Nucleotide metabolism is one of the largest metabolic pathways in the human cell and is of outstanding therapeutic importance since it activates and catabolises nucleoside based anti-proliferative drugs and serves as a direct target for anti-proliferative drugs. In recent years the structural coverage of the enzymes involved in human nucleotide metabolism has been dramatically improved and is approaching completion. An important factor has been the contribution from the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) at Karolinska Institutet, which recently has solved 33 novel structures of enzymes and enzyme domains in human nucleotide metabolism pathways and homologs thereof. In this review we will discuss some of the principles for substrate specificity of enzymes in human nucleotide metabolism illustrated by a selected set of enzyme families where a detailed understanding of the structural determinants for specificity is now emerging.

From the selfish gene to selfish metabolism: revisiting the central dogma.

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de Lorenzo, Víctor

2014-03-01

The standard representation of the Central Dogma (CD) of Molecular Biology conspicuously ignores metabolism. However, both the metabolites and the biochemical fluxes behind any biological phenomenon are encrypted in the DNA sequence. Metabolism constrains and even changes the information flow when the DNA-encoded instructions conflict with the homeostasis of the biochemical network. Inspection of adaptive virulence programs and emergence of xenobiotic-biodegradation pathways in environmental bacteria suggest that their main evolutionary drive is the expansion of their metabolic networks towards new chemical landscapes rather than perpetuation and spreading of their DNA sequences. Faulty enzymatic reactions on suboptimal substrates often produce reactive oxygen species (ROS), a process that fosters DNA diversification and ultimately couples catabolism of the new chemicals to growth. All this calls for a revision of the CD in which metabolism (rather than DNA) has the leading role. © 2014 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.

Metabolic Pathways Visualization Skills Development by Undergraduate Students

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dos Santos, Vanessa J. S. V.; Galembeck, Eduardo

2015-01-01

We have developed a metabolic pathways visualization skill test (MPVST) to gain greater insight into our students' abilities to comprehend the visual information presented in metabolic pathways diagrams. The test is able to discriminate students' visualization ability with respect to six specific visualization skills that we identified as key to…

Mitochondrial Carriers Link the Catabolism of Hydroxyaromatic Compounds to the Central Metabolism in Candida parapsilosis

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Igor Zeman

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The pathogenic yeast Candida parapsilosis metabolizes hydroxyderivatives of benzene and benzoic acid to compounds channeled into central metabolism, including the mitochondrially localized tricarboxylic acid cycle, via the 3-oxoadipate and gentisate pathways. The orchestration of both catabolic pathways with mitochondrial metabolism as well as their evolutionary origin is not fully understood. Our results show that the enzymes involved in these two pathways operate in the cytoplasm with the exception of the mitochondrially targeted 3-oxoadipate CoA-transferase (Osc1p and 3-oxoadipyl-CoA thiolase (Oct1p catalyzing the last two reactions of the 3-oxoadipate pathway. The cellular localization of the enzymes indicates that degradation of hydroxyaromatic compounds requires a shuttling of intermediates, cofactors, and products of the corresponding biochemical reactions between cytosol and mitochondria. Indeed, we found that yeast cells assimilating hydroxybenzoates increase the expression of genes SFC1, LEU5, YHM2, and MPC1 coding for succinate/fumarate carrier, coenzyme A carrier, oxoglutarate/citrate carrier, and the subunit of pyruvate carrier, respectively. A phylogenetic analysis uncovered distinct evolutionary trajectories for sparsely distributed gene clusters coding for enzymes of both pathways. Whereas the 3-oxoadipate pathway appears to have evolved by vertical descent combined with multiple losses, the gentisate pathway shows a striking pattern suggestive of horizontal gene transfer to the evolutionarily distant Mucorales.

Pathway discovery in metabolic networks by subgraph extraction.

Science.gov (United States)

Faust, Karoline; Dupont, Pierre; Callut, Jérôme; van Helden, Jacques

2010-05-01

Subgraph extraction is a powerful technique to predict pathways from biological networks and a set of query items (e.g. genes, proteins, compounds, etc.). It can be applied to a variety of different data types, such as gene expression, protein levels, operons or phylogenetic profiles. In this article, we investigate different approaches to extract relevant pathways from metabolic networks. Although these approaches have been adapted to metabolic networks, they are generic enough to be adjusted to other biological networks as well. We comparatively evaluated seven sub-network extraction approaches on 71 known metabolic pathways from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and a metabolic network obtained from MetaCyc. The best performing approach is a novel hybrid strategy, which combines a random walk-based reduction of the graph with a shortest paths-based algorithm, and which recovers the reference pathways with an accuracy of approximately 77%. Most of the presented algorithms are available as part of the network analysis tool set (NeAT). The kWalks method is released under the GPL3 license.

Machine learning methods for metabolic pathway prediction

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Karp Peter D

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A key challenge in systems biology is the reconstruction of an organism's metabolic network from its genome sequence. One strategy for addressing this problem is to predict which metabolic pathways, from a reference database of known pathways, are present in the organism, based on the annotated genome of the organism. Results To quantitatively validate methods for pathway prediction, we developed a large "gold standard" dataset of 5,610 pathway instances known to be present or absent in curated metabolic pathway databases for six organisms. We defined a collection of 123 pathway features, whose information content we evaluated with respect to the gold standard. Feature data were used as input to an extensive collection of machine learning (ML methods, including naïve Bayes, decision trees, and logistic regression, together with feature selection and ensemble methods. We compared the ML methods to the previous PathoLogic algorithm for pathway prediction using the gold standard dataset. We found that ML-based prediction methods can match the performance of the PathoLogic algorithm. PathoLogic achieved an accuracy of 91% and an F-measure of 0.786. The ML-based prediction methods achieved accuracy as high as 91.2% and F-measure as high as 0.787. The ML-based methods output a probability for each predicted pathway, whereas PathoLogic does not, which provides more information to the user and facilitates filtering of predicted pathways. Conclusions ML methods for pathway prediction perform as well as existing methods, and have qualitative advantages in terms of extensibility, tunability, and explainability. More advanced prediction methods and/or more sophisticated input features may improve the performance of ML methods. However, pathway prediction performance appears to be limited largely by the ability to correctly match enzymes to the reactions they catalyze based on genome annotations.

Machine learning methods for metabolic pathway prediction

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

Background A key challenge in systems biology is the reconstruction of an organism's metabolic network from its genome sequence. One strategy for addressing this problem is to predict which metabolic pathways, from a reference database of known pathways, are present in the organism, based on the annotated genome of the organism. Results To quantitatively validate methods for pathway prediction, we developed a large "gold standard" dataset of 5,610 pathway instances known to be present or absent in curated metabolic pathway databases for six organisms. We defined a collection of 123 pathway features, whose information content we evaluated with respect to the gold standard. Feature data were used as input to an extensive collection of machine learning (ML) methods, including naïve Bayes, decision trees, and logistic regression, together with feature selection and ensemble methods. We compared the ML methods to the previous PathoLogic algorithm for pathway prediction using the gold standard dataset. We found that ML-based prediction methods can match the performance of the PathoLogic algorithm. PathoLogic achieved an accuracy of 91% and an F-measure of 0.786. The ML-based prediction methods achieved accuracy as high as 91.2% and F-measure as high as 0.787. The ML-based methods output a probability for each predicted pathway, whereas PathoLogic does not, which provides more information to the user and facilitates filtering of predicted pathways. Conclusions ML methods for pathway prediction perform as well as existing methods, and have qualitative advantages in terms of extensibility, tunability, and explainability. More advanced prediction methods and/or more sophisticated input features may improve the performance of ML methods. However, pathway prediction performance appears to be limited largely by the ability to correctly match enzymes to the reactions they catalyze based on genome annotations. PMID:20064214

The MetaCyc database of metabolic pathways and enzymes and the BioCyc collection of pathway/genome databases

Science.gov (United States)

Caspi, Ron; Altman, Tomer; Dale, Joseph M.; Dreher, Kate; Fulcher, Carol A.; Gilham, Fred; Kaipa, Pallavi; Karthikeyan, Athikkattuvalasu S.; Kothari, Anamika; Krummenacker, Markus; Latendresse, Mario; Mueller, Lukas A.; Paley, Suzanne; Popescu, Liviu; Pujar, Anuradha; Shearer, Alexander G.; Zhang, Peifen; Karp, Peter D.

2010-01-01

The MetaCyc database (MetaCyc.org) is a comprehensive and freely accessible resource for metabolic pathways and enzymes from all domains of life. The pathways in MetaCyc are experimentally determined, small-molecule metabolic pathways and are curated from the primary scientific literature. With more than 1400 pathways, MetaCyc is the largest collection of metabolic pathways currently available. Pathways reactions are linked to one or more well-characterized enzymes, and both pathways and enzymes are annotated with reviews, evidence codes, and literature citations. BioCyc (BioCyc.org) is a collection of more than 500 organism-specific Pathway/Genome Databases (PGDBs). Each BioCyc PGDB contains the full genome and predicted metabolic network of one organism. The network, which is predicted by the Pathway Tools software using MetaCyc as a reference, consists of metabolites, enzymes, reactions and metabolic pathways. BioCyc PGDBs also contain additional features, such as predicted operons, transport systems, and pathway hole-fillers. The BioCyc Web site offers several tools for the analysis of the PGDBs, including Omics Viewers that enable visualization of omics datasets on two different genome-scale diagrams and tools for comparative analysis. The BioCyc PGDBs generated by SRI are offered for adoption by any party interested in curation of metabolic, regulatory, and genome-related information about an organism. PMID:19850718

Understanding bistability in yeast glycolysis using general properties of metabolic pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Planqué, Robert; Bruggeman, Frank J; Teusink, Bas; Hulshof, Josephus

2014-09-01

Glycolysis is the central pathway in energy metabolism in the majority of organisms. In a recent paper, van Heerden et al. showed experimentally and computationally that glycolysis can exist in two states, a global steady state and a so-called imbalanced state. In the imbalanced state, intermediary metabolites accumulate at low levels of ATP and inorganic phosphate. It was shown that Baker's yeast uses a peculiar regulatory mechanism--via trehalose metabolism--to ensure that most yeast cells reach the steady state and not the imbalanced state. Here we explore the apparent bistable behaviour in a core model of glycolysis that is based on a well-established detailed model, and study in great detail the bifurcation behaviour of solutions, without using any numerical information on parameter values. We uncover a rich suite of solutions, including so-called imbalanced states, bistability, and oscillatory behaviour. The techniques employed are generic, directly suitable for a wide class of biochemical pathways, and could lead to better analytical treatments of more detailed models. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Defining a novel leptin–melanocortin–kisspeptin pathway involved in the metabolic control of puberty

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Maria Manfredi-Lozano

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Objective: Puberty is a key developmental phenomenon highly sensitive to metabolic modulation. Worrying trends of changes in the timing of puberty have been reported in humans. These might be linked to the escalating prevalence of childhood obesity and could have deleterious impacts on later (cardio-metabolic health, but their underlying mechanisms remain unsolved. The neuropeptide α-MSH, made by POMC neurons, plays a key role in energy homeostasis by mediating the actions of leptin and likely participates in the control of reproduction. However, its role in the metabolic regulation of puberty and interplay with kisspeptin, an essential puberty-regulating neuropeptide encoded by Kiss1, remain largely unknown. We aim here to unveil the potential contribution of central α-MSH signaling in the metabolic control of puberty by addressing its role in mediating the pubertal effects of leptin and its potential interaction with kisspeptin. Methods: Using wild type and genetically modified rodent models, we implemented pharmacological studies, expression analyses, electrophysiological recordings, and virogenetic approaches involving DREADD technology to selectively inhibit Kiss1 neurons, in order to interrogate the physiological role of a putative leptin→α-MSH→kisspeptin pathway in the metabolic control of puberty. Results: Stimulation of central α-MSH signaling robustly activated the reproductive axis in pubertal rats, whereas chronic inhibition of melanocortin receptors MC3/4R, delayed puberty, and prevented the permissive effect of leptin on puberty onset. Central blockade of MC3/4R or genetic elimination of kisspeptin receptors from POMC neurons did not affect kisspeptin effects. Conversely, congenital ablation of kisspeptin receptors or inducible, DREADD-mediated inhibition of arcuate nucleus (ARC Kiss1 neurons resulted in markedly attenuated gonadotropic responses to MC3/4R activation. Furthermore, close appositions were observed between

Sulfosys (Sulfolobus Systems Biology): towards a silicon cell model for the central carbohydrate metabolism of the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus under temperature variation.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Albers, S.V.; Birkeland, N.K.; Driessen, A.J.; Gertig, S.; Haferkamp, P.; Klenk, H.P.; Kouril, T.; Manica, A.; Pham, T.K.; Ruoff, P.; Schleper, C.; Schomburg, D.; Sharkey, K.J.; Siebers, B.; Sierocinski, P.; Steuer, R.; van der Oost, J.; Westerhoff, H.V.; Wieloch, P.; Wright, P.C.; Zaparty, M.

2009-01-01

SulfoSYS (Sulfolobus Systems Biology) focuses on the study of the CCM (central carbohydrate metabolism) of Sulfolobus solfataricus and its regulation under temperature variation at the systems level. In Archaea, carbohydrates are metabolized by modifications of the classical pathways known from

Metabolic Dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease: Bioenergetics, Redox Homeostasis and Central Carbon Metabolism.

Science.gov (United States)

Anandhan, Annadurai; Jacome, Maria S; Lei, Shulei; Hernandez-Franco, Pablo; Pappa, Aglaia; Panayiotidis, Mihalis I; Powers, Robert; Franco, Rodrigo

2017-07-01

The loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and the accumulation of protein inclusions (Lewy bodies) are the pathological hallmarks of Parkinson's disease (PD). PD is triggered by genetic alterations, environmental/occupational exposures and aging. However, the exact molecular mechanisms linking these PD risk factors to neuronal dysfunction are still unclear. Alterations in redox homeostasis and bioenergetics (energy failure) are thought to be central components of neurodegeneration that contribute to the impairment of important homeostatic processes in dopaminergic cells such as protein quality control mechanisms, neurotransmitter release/metabolism, axonal transport of vesicles and cell survival. Importantly, both bioenergetics and redox homeostasis are coupled to neuro-glial central carbon metabolism. We and others have recently established a link between the alterations in central carbon metabolism induced by PD risk factors, redox homeostasis and bioenergetics and their contribution to the survival/death of dopaminergic cells. In this review, we focus on the link between metabolic dysfunction, energy failure and redox imbalance in PD, making an emphasis in the contribution of central carbon (glucose) metabolism. The evidence summarized here strongly supports the consideration of PD as a disorder of cell metabolism. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evidence that humans metabolize benzene via two pathways.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rappaport, S.M.; Kim, S.; Lan, Q.; Vermeulen, R.C.H.; Waidyanatha, S.; Zhang, L.; Li, G.; Yin, S.; Hayes, R.B.; Rothman, N.; Smith, M.T.

2009-01-01

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence has shown that humans metabolize benzene more efficiently at environmental air concentrations than at concentrations > 1 ppm. This led us to speculate that an unidentified metabolic pathway was mainly responsible for benzene metabolism at ambient levels. OBJECTIVE: We

Clinical pathways for inborn errors of metabolism: warranted and feasible

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Demirdas Serwet

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs are known for their low prevalence and multidisciplinary care mostly founded on expert opinion. Clinical pathways are multidisciplinary tools to organise care which provide a clear route to the best care and improve communication. In 2010 the Dutch Society for Children and Adults with an Inborn Error of Metabolism (VKS initiated development of clinical pathways for inborn errors of metabolism. In this letter to the editor we describe why it is warranted to develop clinical pathways for IEMs and shortly discuss the process of development for these pathways in the Netherlands.

SulfoSYS (Sulfolobus Systems Biology) : towards a silicon cell model for the central carbohydrate metabolism of the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus under temperature variation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Albers, Sonja-Verena; Birkeland, Nils-Kare; Driessen, Arnold J. M.; Gertig, Susanne; Haferkamp, Patrick; Klenk, Hans-Peter; Kouril, Theresa; Manica, Andrea; Pham, Trong K.; Ruoff, Peter; Schleper, Christa; Schomburg, Dietmar; Sharkey, Kieran J.; Siebers, Bettina; Sierocinski, Pawel; Steuer, Ralf; van der Oost, John; Westerhoff, Hans V.; Wieloch, Patricia; Wright, Phillip C.; Zaparty, Melanie; Birkeland, Nils-Kåre

SulfoSYS (Sulfolobus Systems Biology) focuses on the study of the CCM (central carbohydrate metabolism) of Sulfolobus solfataricus and its regulation under temperature variation at the systems level. in Archaea, carbohydrates are metabolized by modifications of the classical pathways known from

SulfoSYS (Sulfolobus Systems Biology): towards a silicon cell model for the central carbohydrate metabolism of the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus under temperature variation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Albers, S.V.; Birkeland, N.K.; Driessen, A.J.M.; Gertig, S.; Haferkamp, P.; Klenk, H.P.; Kouril, T.; Manica, A.; Pham, T.K.; Ruoff, P.; Schleper, C.; Schomburg, D.; Sharkey, K.; Siebers, B.; Sierocinski, P.; Steur, R.; Oost, van der J.; Westerhoff, H.V.; Wieloch, P.; Wright, P.C.; Zaparty, M.

2009-01-01

SulfoSYS (Sulfolobus Systems Biology) focuses on the study of the CCM (central carbohydrate metabolism) of Sulfolobus solfataricus and its regulation under temperature variation at the systems level. In Archaea, carbohydrates are metabolized by modifications of the classical pathways known from

Ties that bind: the integration of plastid signalling pathways in plant cell metabolism.

Science.gov (United States)

Brunkard, Jacob O; Burch-Smith, Tessa M

2018-04-13

Plastids are critical organelles in plant cells that perform diverse functions and are central to many metabolic pathways. Beyond their major roles in primary metabolism, of which their role in photosynthesis is perhaps best known, plastids contribute to the biosynthesis of phytohormones and other secondary metabolites, store critical biomolecules, and sense a range of environmental stresses. Accordingly, plastid-derived signals coordinate a host of physiological and developmental processes, often by emitting signalling molecules that regulate the expression of nuclear genes. Several excellent recent reviews have provided broad perspectives on plastid signalling pathways. In this review, we will highlight recent advances in our understanding of chloroplast signalling pathways. Our discussion focuses on new discoveries illuminating how chloroplasts determine life and death decisions in cells and on studies elucidating tetrapyrrole biosynthesis signal transduction networks. We will also examine the role of a plastid RNA helicase, ISE2, in chloroplast signalling, and scrutinize intriguing results investigating the potential role of stromules in conducting signals from the chloroplast to other cellular locations. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society.

Evolutionary Rate Heterogeneity of Primary and Secondary Metabolic Pathway Genes in Arabidopsis thaliana.

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Mukherjee, Dola; Mukherjee, Ashutosh; Ghosh, Tapash Chandra

2015-11-10

Primary metabolism is essential to plants for growth and development, and secondary metabolism helps plants to interact with the environment. Many plant metabolites are industrially important. These metabolites are produced by plants through complex metabolic pathways. Lack of knowledge about these pathways is hindering the successful breeding practices for these metabolites. For a better knowledge of the metabolism in plants as a whole, evolutionary rate variation of primary and secondary metabolic pathway genes is a prerequisite. In this study, evolutionary rate variation of primary and secondary metabolic pathway genes has been analyzed in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Primary metabolic pathway genes were found to be more conserved than secondary metabolic pathway genes. Several factors such as gene structure, expression level, tissue specificity, multifunctionality, and domain number are the key factors behind this evolutionary rate variation. This study will help to better understand the evolutionary dynamics of plant metabolism. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Rewriting the Metabolic Blueprint: Advances in Pathway Diversification in Microorganisms

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Gazi Sakir Hossain

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Living organisms have evolved over millions of years to fine tune their metabolism to create efficient pathways for producing metabolites necessary for their survival. Advancement in the field of synthetic biology has enabled the exploitation of these metabolic pathways for the production of desired compounds by creating microbial cell factories through metabolic engineering, thus providing sustainable routes to obtain value-added chemicals. Following the past success in metabolic engineering, there is increasing interest in diversifying natural metabolic pathways to construct non-natural biosynthesis routes, thereby creating possibilities for producing novel valuable compounds that are non-natural or without elucidated biosynthesis pathways. Thus, the range of chemicals that can be produced by biological systems can be expanded to meet the demands of industries for compounds such as plastic precursors and new antibiotics, most of which can only be obtained through chemical synthesis currently. Herein, we review and discuss novel strategies that have been developed to rewrite natural metabolic blueprints in a bid to broaden the chemical repertoire achievable in microorganisms. This review aims to provide insights on recent approaches taken to open new avenues for achieving biochemical production that are beyond currently available inventions.

Rewriting the Metabolic Blueprint: Advances in Pathway Diversification in Microorganisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Hossain, Gazi Sakir; Nadarajan, Saravanan Prabhu; Zhang, Lei; Ng, Tee-Kheang; Foo, Jee Loon; Ling, Hua; Choi, Won Jae; Chang, Matthew Wook

2018-01-01

Living organisms have evolved over millions of years to fine tune their metabolism to create efficient pathways for producing metabolites necessary for their survival. Advancement in the field of synthetic biology has enabled the exploitation of these metabolic pathways for the production of desired compounds by creating microbial cell factories through metabolic engineering, thus providing sustainable routes to obtain value-added chemicals. Following the past success in metabolic engineering, there is increasing interest in diversifying natural metabolic pathways to construct non-natural biosynthesis routes, thereby creating possibilities for producing novel valuable compounds that are non-natural or without elucidated biosynthesis pathways. Thus, the range of chemicals that can be produced by biological systems can be expanded to meet the demands of industries for compounds such as plastic precursors and new antibiotics, most of which can only be obtained through chemical synthesis currently. Herein, we review and discuss novel strategies that have been developed to rewrite natural metabolic blueprints in a bid to broaden the chemical repertoire achievable in microorganisms. This review aims to provide insights on recent approaches taken to open new avenues for achieving biochemical production that are beyond currently available inventions.

Central and Metabolic Effects of High Fructose Consumption: Evidence from Animal and Human Studies

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Alexandra Stoianov

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Fructose consumption has increased dramatically in the last 40 years, and its role in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome has been implicated by many studies. It is most often encountered in the diet as sucrose (glucose and fructose or high-fructose corn syrup (55% fructose. At high levels, dietary exposure to fructose triggers a series of metabolic changes originating in the liver, leading to hepatic steatosis, hypertriglyceridemia, insulin resistance, and decreased leptin sensitivity. Fructose has been identified to alter biological pathways in other tissues including the central nervous system (CNS, adipose tissue, and the gastrointestinal system. Unlike glucose, consumption of fructose produces smaller increases in the circulating satiety hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1, and does not attenuate levels of the appetite suppressing hormone ghrelin. In the brain, fructose contributes to increased food consumption by activating appetite and reward pathways, and stimulating hypothalamic AMPK activity, a nutrient-sensitive regulator of food intake. Recent studies investigating the neurophysiological factors linking fructose consumption and weight gain in humans have demonstrated differential activation of brain regions that govern appetite, motivation and reward processing. Compared to fructose, glucose ingestion produces a greater reduction of hypothalamic neuronal activity, and increases functional connectivity between the hypothalamus and other reward regions of the brain, indicating that these two sugars regulate feeding behavior through distinct neural circuits. This review article outlines the current findings in fructose-feeding studies in both human and animal models, and discusses the central effects on the CNS that may lead to increased appetite and food intake. Keywords: Fructose, Metabolic syndrome, Appetite, Central nervous system

Metabolic pathway alignment between species using a comprehensive and flexible similarity measure

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de Ridder Dick

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Comparative analysis of metabolic networks in multiple species yields important information on their evolution, and has great practical value in metabolic engineering, human disease analysis, drug design etc. In this work, we aim to systematically search for conserved pathways in two species, quantify their similarities, and focus on the variations between them. Results We present an efficient framework, Metabolic Pathway Alignment and Scoring (M-PAS, for identifying and ranking conserved metabolic pathways. M-PAS aligns all reactions in entire metabolic networks of two species and assembles them into pathways, taking mismatches, gaps and crossovers into account. It uses a comprehensive scoring function, which quantifies pathway similarity such that we can focus on different pathways given different biological motivations. Using M-PAS, we detected 1198 length-four pathways fully conserved between Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli, and also revealed 1399 cases of a species using a unique route in otherwise highly conserved pathways. Conclusion Our method efficiently automates the process of exploring reaction arrangement possibilities, both between species and within species, to find conserved pathways. We not only reconstruct conventional pathways such as those found in KEGG, but also discover new pathway possibilities. Our results can help to generate hypotheses on missing reactions and manifest differences in highly conserved pathways, which is useful for biology and life science applications.

Engineering central metabolism – a grand challenge for plant biologists

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sweetlove, Lee J.; Nielsen, Jens; Fernie, Alisdair R.

2017-01-01

The goal of increasing crop productivity and nutrient-use efficiency is being addressed by a number of ambitious research projects seeking to re-engineer photosynthetic biochemistry. Many of these projects will require the engineering of substantial changes in fluxes of central metabolism. However......, as has been amply demonstrated in simpler systems such as microbes, central metabolism is extremely difficult to rationally engineer. This is because of multiple layers of regulation that operate to maintain metabolic steady state and because of the highly connected nature of central metabolism....... In this review we discuss new approaches for metabolic engineering that have the potential to address these problems and dramatically improve the success with which we can rationally engineer central metabolism in plants. In particular, we advocate the adoption of an iterative ‘design-build-test-learn’ cycle...

Biochemical research elucidating metabolic pathways in Pneumocystis*

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Kaneshiro E.S.

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Advances in sequencing the Pneumocystis carinii genome have helped identify potential metabolic pathways operative in the organism. Also, data from characterizing the biochemical and physiological nature of these organisms now allow elucidation of metabolic pathways as well as pose new challenges and questions that require additional experiments. These experiments are being performed despite the difficulty in doing experiments directly on this pathogen that has yet to be subcultured indefinitely and produce mass numbers of cells in vitro. This article reviews biochemical approaches that have provided insights into several Pneumocystis metabolic pathways. It focuses on 1 S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet; SAM, which is a ubiquitous participant in numerous cellular reactions; 2 sterols: focusing on oxidosqualene cyclase that forms lanosterol in P. carinii; SAM:sterol C-24 methyltransferase that adds methyl groups at the C-24 position of the sterol side chain; and sterol 14α-demethylase that removes a methyl group at the C-14 position of the sterol nucleus; and 3 synthesis of ubiquinone homologs, which play a pivotal role in mitochondrial inner membrane and other cellular membrane electron transport.

Metabolism of cysteine by cyteinesulfinate-independent pathway(s) in rat hepatocytes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stipanuk, M.H.; De La Rosa, J.; Drake, M.R.

1986-01-01

The metabolism of cysteine (CYS) and that of cysteinesulfinate (CSA) were studied in freshly isolated hepatocytes from fed rats. In incubations of rat hepatocytes with either 1 or 25 mM CSA, over 90% of the 14 CO 2 formed from [1- 14 C]CSA could be accounted for by production of hypotaurine plus taurine. In similar incubations with 1 or 25 mM CYS, only 4% of 14 CO 2 evolution from [1- 14 C]CYS could be accounted for by production of hypotaurine plus taurine. Addition of unlabeled CSA inhibited recovery of label from [1- 14 C]CYS as 14 CO 2 by 33%. Metabolism of CYS and of CSA were affected differently by addition of α-ketoglutarate, a cosubstrate for transamination, or of propargylglycine, an inhibitor of cystathionase activity. These data suggest that a substantial proportion of CYS is catabolized by CSA-independent pathways in the rat hepatocyte. Although addition of α-ketoglutarate to incubations of hepatocytes with CSA resulted in a marked increase in CSA catabolism via the transamination pathway, addition of keto acids to incubation systems had little or no effect on production of any metabolite from CYS. Thus, CYS transamination does not appear to be a major pathway of CYS metabolism in the hepatocyte. Inhibition of cystathionase with propargylglycine reduced both 14 CO 2 production from [1- 14 C]CYS and ammonia plus urea nitrogen production from CYS by about 50%; CSA catabolism was not affected. Thus, cleavage of cyst(e)ine by cystathionase may be an important physiological pathway for CYS catabolism in the liver

The carbon storage regulator (Csr) system exerts a nutrient-specific control over central metabolism in Escherichia coli strain Nissle 1917.

Science.gov (United States)

Revelles, Olga; Millard, Pierre; Nougayrède, Jean-Philippe; Dobrindt, Ulrich; Oswald, Eric; Létisse, Fabien; Portais, Jean-Charles

2013-01-01

The role of the post-transcriptional carbon storage regulator (Csr) system in nutrient utilization and in the control of the central metabolism in E. coli reference commensal strain Nissle 1917 was investigated. Analysis of the growth capabilities of mutants altered for various components of the Csr system (csrA51, csrB, csrC and csrD mutations) showed that only the protein CsrA - the key component of the system - exerts a marked role in carbon nutrition. Attenuation of CsrA activity in the csrA51 mutant affects the growth efficiency on a broad range of physiologically relevant carbon sources, including compounds utilized by the Entner-Doudoroff (ED) pathway. Detailed investigations of the metabolomes and fluxomes of mutants and wild-type cells grown on carbon sources representative of glycolysis and of the ED pathway (glucose and gluconate, respectively), revealed significant re-adjusting of central carbon metabolism for both compounds in the csrA51 mutant. However, the metabolic re-adjusting observed on gluconate was strikingly different from that observed on glucose, indicating a nutrient-specific control of metabolism by the Csr system.

Sucrose metabolic pathways in sweetgum and pecan seedlings

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S.S. Sung; P.P. Kormanik; D.P. Xu; C.C. Black

1989-01-01

Sucrose metabolism and glycolysis were studied in one- to two-year-old seedlings of sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) and pecan (Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) C. Koch). The sucrose synthase pathway was identified as the dominant sucrose metabolic activity in sucrose sink tissues such as terminal buds and the root cambial...

The depressed central carbon and energy metabolisms is associated to the acquisition of levofloxacin resistance in Vibrio alginolyticus.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Zhi-Xue; Yang, Man-Jun; Peng, Bo; Peng, Xuan-Xian; Lin, Xiang-Min; Li, Hui

2018-06-15

The overuse and misuse of antibiotics lead to bacterial antibiotic resistance, challenging human health and intensive cultivation. It is especially required to understand for the mechanism of antibiotic resistance to control antibiotic-resistant pathogens. The present study characterized the differential proteome of levofloxacin-resistant Vibrio alginolyticus with the most advanced iTRAQ quantitative proteomics technology. A total of 160 proteins of differential abundance were identified, where 70 were decreased and 90 were increased. Further analysis demonstrated that crucial metabolic pathways like TCA cycle were significantly down-regulated. qRT-PCR analysis demonstrated the decreased gene expression of glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, the TCA cycle, and fatty acid biosynthesis. Moreover, Na(+)-NQR complex gene expression, membrane potential and the adenylate energy charge ratio were decreased, indicating that the decreased central carbon metabolism is associated to the acquisition of levofloxacin resistance. Therefore, the reduced central carbon and energy metabolisms form a characteristic feature as fitness costs of V. alginolyticus in resistance to levofloxacin. The overuse and misuse of antibiotics lead to bacterial antibiotic resistance, challenging human health and intensive cultivation. Understanding for the antibiotic resistance mechanisms is especially required to control these antibiotic-resistant pathogens. The present study characterized the differential proteome of levofloxacin-resistant Vibrio alginolyticus using the most advanced iTRAQ quantitative proteomics technology. A total of 160 differential abundance of proteins were identified with 70 decreases and 90 increases by liquid chromatography matrix assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry. Most interestingly, crucial metabolic pathways such as the TCA cycle sharply fluctuated. This is the first report that the reduced central carbon and energy metabolisms form a characteristic feature

Caveat emptor: limitations of the automated reconstruction of metabolic pathways in Plasmodium.

Science.gov (United States)

Ginsburg, Hagai

2009-01-01

The functional reconstruction of metabolic pathways from an annotated genome is a tedious and demanding enterprise. Automation of this endeavor using bioinformatics algorithms could cope with the ever-increasing number of sequenced genomes and accelerate the process. Here, the manual reconstruction of metabolic pathways in the functional genomic database of Plasmodium falciparum--Malaria Parasite Metabolic Pathways--is described and compared with pathways generated automatically as they appear in PlasmoCyc, metaSHARK and the Kyoto Encyclopedia for Genes and Genomes. A critical evaluation of this comparison discloses that the automatic reconstruction of pathways generates manifold paths that need an expert manual verification to accept some and reject most others based on manually curated gene annotation.

The homogentisate pathway: a central catabolic pathway involved in the degradation of L-phenylalanine, L-tyrosine, and 3-hydroxyphenylacetate in Pseudomonas putida.

Science.gov (United States)

Arias-Barrau, Elsa; Olivera, Elías R; Luengo, José M; Fernández, Cristina; Galán, Beatriz; García, José L; Díaz, Eduardo; Miñambres, Baltasar

2004-08-01

Pseudomonas putida metabolizes Phe and Tyr through a peripheral pathway involving hydroxylation of Phe to Tyr (PhhAB), conversion of Tyr into 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate (TyrB), and formation of homogentisate (Hpd) as the central intermediate. Homogentisate is then catabolized by a central catabolic pathway that involves three enzymes, homogentisate dioxygenase (HmgA), fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase (HmgB), and maleylacetoacetate isomerase (HmgC), finally yielding fumarate and acetoacetate. Whereas the phh, tyr, and hpd genes are not linked in the P. putida genome, the hmgABC genes appear to form a single transcriptional unit. Gel retardation assays and lacZ translational fusion experiments have shown that hmgR encodes a specific repressor that controls the inducible expression of the divergently transcribed hmgABC catabolic genes, and homogentisate is the inducer molecule. Footprinting analysis revealed that HmgR protects a region in the Phmg promoter that spans a 17-bp palindromic motif and an external direct repetition from position -16 to position 29 with respect to the transcription start site. The HmgR protein is thus the first IclR-type regulator that acts as a repressor of an aromatic catabolic pathway. We engineered a broad-host-range mobilizable catabolic cassette harboring the hmgABC, hpd, and tyrB genes that allows heterologous bacteria to use Tyr as a unique carbon and energy source. Remarkably, we show here that the catabolism of 3-hydroxyphenylacetate in P. putida U funnels also into the homogentisate central pathway, revealing that the hmg cluster is a key catabolic trait for biodegradation of a small number of aromatic compounds.

Arachidonic Acid Metabolism Pathway Is Not Only Dominant in Metabolic Modulation but Associated With Phenotypic Variation After Acute Hypoxia Exposure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang Liu

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Background: The modulation of arachidonic acid (AA metabolism pathway is identified in metabolic alterations after hypoxia exposure, but its biological function is controversial. We aimed at integrating plasma metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches to systematically explore the roles of the AA metabolism pathway in response to acute hypoxia using an acute mountain sickness (AMS model.Methods: Blood samples were obtained from 53 enrolled subjects before and after exposure to high altitude. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry and RNA sequencing were separately performed for metabolomic and transcriptomic profiling, respectively. Influential modules comprising essential metabolites and genes were identified by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA after integrating metabolic information with phenotypic and transcriptomic datasets, respectively.Results: Enrolled subjects exhibited diverse response manners to hypoxia. Combined with obviously altered heart rate, oxygen saturation, hemoglobin, and Lake Louise Score (LLS, metabolomic profiling detected that 36 metabolites were highly related to clinical features in hypoxia responses, out of which 27 were upregulated and nine were downregulated, and could be mapped to AA metabolism pathway significantly. Integrated analysis of metabolomic and transcriptomic data revealed that these dominant molecules showed remarkable association with genes in gas transport incapacitation and disorders of hemoglobin metabolism pathways, such as ALAS2, HEMGN. After detailed description of AA metabolism pathway, we found that the molecules of 15-d-PGJ2, PGA2, PGE2, 12-O-3-OH-LTB4, LTD4, LTE4 were significantly up-regulated after hypoxia stimuli, and increased in those with poor response manner to hypoxia particularly. Further analysis in another cohort showed that genes in AA metabolism pathway such as PTGES, PTGS1, GGT1, TBAS1 et al. were excessively

FindPath: a Matlab solution for in silico design of synthetic metabolic pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Vieira, Gilles; Carnicer, Marc; Portais, Jean-Charles; Heux, Stéphanie

2014-10-15

Several methods and computational tools have been developed to design novel metabolic pathways. A major challenge is evaluating the metabolic efficiency of the designed pathways in the host organism. Here we present FindPath, a unified system to predict and rank possible pathways according to their metabolic efficiency in the cellular system. This tool uses a chemical reaction database to generate possible metabolic pathways and exploits constraint-based models (CBMs) to identify the most efficient synthetic pathway to achieve the desired metabolic function in a given host microorganism. FindPath can be used with common tools for CBM manipulation and uses the standard SBML format for both input and output files. http://metasys.insa-toulouse.fr/software/findpath/. heux@insa-toulouse.fr Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Regulation of lipid metabolism by energy availability: a role for the central nervous system.

Science.gov (United States)

Nogueiras, R; López, M; Diéguez, C

2010-03-01

The central nervous system (CNS) is crucial in the regulation of energy homeostasis. Many neuroanatomical studies have shown that the white adipose tissue (WAT) is innervated by the sympathetic nervous system, which plays a critical role in adipocyte lipid metabolism. Therefore, there are currently numerous reports indicating that signals from the CNS control the amount of fat by modulating the storage or oxidation of fatty acids. Importantly, some CNS pathways regulate adipocyte metabolism independently of food intake, suggesting that some signals possess alternative mechanisms to regulate energy homeostasis. In this review, we mainly focus on how neuronal circuits within the hypothalamus, such as leptin- ghrelin-and resistin-responsive neurons, as well as melanocortins, neuropeptide Y, and the cannabinoid system exert their actions on lipid metabolism in peripheral tissues such as WAT, liver or muscle. Dissecting the complicated interactions between peripheral signals and neuronal circuits regulating lipid metabolism might open new avenues for the development of new therapies preventing and treating obesity and its associated cardiometabolic sequelae.

Large-scale transcriptome analysis reveals arabidopsis metabolic pathways are frequently influenced by different pathogens.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Zhenhong; He, Fei; Zhang, Ziding

2017-07-01

Through large-scale transcriptional data analyses, we highlighted the importance of plant metabolism in plant immunity and identified 26 metabolic pathways that were frequently influenced by the infection of 14 different pathogens. Reprogramming of plant metabolism is a common phenomenon in plant defense responses. Currently, a large number of transcriptional profiles of infected tissues in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) have been deposited in public databases, which provides a great opportunity to understand the expression patterns of metabolic pathways during plant defense responses at the systems level. Here, we performed a large-scale transcriptome analysis based on 135 previously published expression samples, including 14 different pathogens, to explore the expression pattern of Arabidopsis metabolic pathways. Overall, metabolic genes are significantly changed in expression during plant defense responses. Upregulated metabolic genes are enriched on defense responses, and downregulated genes are enriched on photosynthesis, fatty acid and lipid metabolic processes. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) identifies 26 frequently differentially expressed metabolic pathways (FreDE_Paths) that are differentially expressed in more than 60% of infected samples. These pathways are involved in the generation of energy, fatty acid and lipid metabolism as well as secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Clustering analysis based on the expression levels of these 26 metabolic pathways clearly distinguishes infected and control samples, further suggesting the importance of these metabolic pathways in plant defense responses. By comparing with FreDE_Paths from abiotic stresses, we find that the expression patterns of 26 FreDE_Paths from biotic stresses are more consistent across different infected samples. By investigating the expression correlation between transcriptional factors (TFs) and FreDE_Paths, we identify several notable relationships. Collectively, the current study

Identification of cisplatin-regulated metabolic pathways in pluripotent stem cells.

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Louise von Stechow

Full Text Available The chemotherapeutic compound, cisplatin causes various kinds of DNA lesions but also triggers other pertubations, such as ER and oxidative stress. We and others have shown that treatment of pluripotent stem cells with cisplatin causes a plethora of transcriptional and post-translational alterations that, to a major extent, point to DNA damage response (DDR signaling. The orchestrated DDR signaling network is important to arrest the cell cycle and repair the lesions or, in case of damage beyond repair, eliminate affected cells. Failure to properly balance the various aspects of the DDR in stem cells contributes to ageing and cancer. Here, we performed metabolic profiling by mass spectrometry of embryonic stem (ES cells treated for different time periods with cisplatin. We then integrated metabolomics with transcriptomics analyses and connected cisplatin-regulated metabolites with regulated metabolic enzymes to identify enriched metabolic pathways. These included nucleotide metabolism, urea cycle and arginine and proline metabolism. Silencing of identified proline metabolic and catabolic enzymes indicated that altered proline metabolism serves as an adaptive, rather than a toxic response. A group of enriched metabolic pathways clustered around the metabolite S-adenosylmethionine, which is a hub for methylation and transsulfuration reactions and polyamine metabolism. Enzymes and metabolites with pro- or anti-oxidant functions were also enriched but enhanced levels of reactive oxygen species were not measured in cisplatin-treated ES cells. Lastly, a number of the differentially regulated metabolic enzymes were identified as target genes of the transcription factor p53, pointing to p53-mediated alterations in metabolism in response to genotoxic stress. Altogether, our findings reveal interconnecting metabolic pathways that are responsive to cisplatin and may serve as signaling modules in the DDR in pluripotent stem cells.

Synthetic metabolic engineering-a novel, simple technology for designing a chimeric metabolic pathway

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Ye Xiaoting

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The integration of biotechnology into chemical manufacturing has been recognized as a key technology to build a sustainable society. However, the practical applications of biocatalytic chemical conversions are often restricted due to their complexities involving the unpredictability of product yield and the troublesome controls in fermentation processes. One of the possible strategies to overcome these limitations is to eliminate the use of living microorganisms and to use only enzymes involved in the metabolic pathway. Use of recombinant mesophiles producing thermophilic enzymes at high temperature results in denaturation of indigenous proteins and elimination of undesired side reactions; consequently, highly selective and stable biocatalytic modules can be readily prepared. By rationally combining those modules together, artificial synthetic pathways specialized for chemical manufacturing could be designed and constructed. Results A chimeric Embden-Meyerhof (EM pathway with balanced consumption and regeneration of ATP and ADP was constructed by using nine recombinant E. coli strains overproducing either one of the seven glycolytic enzymes of Thermus thermophilus, the cofactor-independent phosphoglycerate mutase of Pyrococcus horikoshii, or the non-phosphorylating glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase of Thermococcus kodakarensis. By coupling this pathway with the Thermus malate/lactate dehydrogenase, a stoichiometric amount of lactate was produced from glucose with an overall ATP turnover number of 31. Conclusions In this study, a novel and simple technology for flexible design of a bespoke metabolic pathway was developed. The concept has been testified via a non-ATP-forming chimeric EM pathway. We designated this technology as “synthetic metabolic engineering”. Our technology is, in principle, applicable to all thermophilic enzymes as long as they can be functionally expressed in the host, and thus would be

Characterization of glucose‐related metabolic pathways in differentiated rat oligodendrocyte lineage cells

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Amaral, Ana I.; Hadera, Mussie G.; Tavares, Joana M.

2015-01-01

Although oligodendrocytes constitute a significant proportion of cells in the central nervous system (CNS), little is known about their intermediary metabolism. We have, therefore, characterized metabolic functions of primary oligodendrocyte precursor cell cultures at late stages of differentiation using isotope‐labelled metabolites. We report that differentiated oligodendrocyte lineage cells avidly metabolize glucose in the cytosol and pyruvate derived from glucose in the mitochondria. The labelling patterns of metabolites obtained after incubation with [1,2‐13C]glucose demonstrated that the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) is highly active in oligodendrocytes (approximately 10% of glucose is metabolized via the PPP as indicated by labelling patterns in phosphoenolpyruvate). Mass spectrometry and magnetic resonance spectroscopy analyses of metabolites after incubation of cells with [1‐13C]lactate or [1,2‐13C]glucose, respectively, demonstrated that anaplerotic pyruvate carboxylation, which was thought to be exclusive to astrocytes, is also active in oligodendrocytes. Using [1,2‐13C]acetate, we show that oligodendrocytes convert acetate into acetyl CoA which is metabolized in the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Analysis of labelling patterns of alanine after incubation of cells with [1,2‐13C]acetate and [1,2‐13C]glucose showed catabolic oxidation of malate or oxaloacetate. In conclusion, we report that oligodendrocyte lineage cells at late differentiation stages are metabolically highly active cells that are likely to contribute considerably to the metabolic activity of the CNS. GLIA 2016;64:21–34 PMID:26352325

Lack of differential pattern in central adiposity and metabolic syndrome in Barrett's esophagus and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Healy, L A

2012-02-01

Obesity is an established risk factor for esophageal adenocarcinoma, although the mechanism is unclear. A pathway from reflux to inflammation through metaplasia is the dominant hypothesis, and an added role relating to visceral adiposity and the metabolic syndrome has been mooted in Barrett\\'s esophagus (BE) patients. Whether BE differs from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in obesity and metabolic syndrome profiles is unclear, and this was the focus of this study. Patients with proven BE or GERD were randomly selected from the unit data registry and invited to attend for metabolic syndrome screening, anthropometry studies including segmental body composition analysis, and laboratory tests including fasting lipids, insulin, and C-reactive protein. Metabolic syndrome was defined using the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. One hundred and eighteen BE patients and 113 age- and sex-matched GERD controls were studied. The incidence of obesity (body mass index >30 kg\\/m(2)) was 36% and 38%, respectively, with the pattern of fat deposition predominantly central and an estimated trunk fat mass of 13 and 14 kg, respectively. Using the NCEP criteria, metabolic syndrome was significantly more common in the BE cohort (30% vs 20%, P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference using IDF criteria (42% vs 37%, P= 0.340). Central obesity and the metabolic syndrome are common in both Barrett\\'s and GERD cohorts, but not significantly different, suggesting that central obesity and the metabolic syndrome does not per se impact on the development of BE in a reflux population. In BE, the importance of obesity and the metabolic syndrome in disease progression merits further study.

Analysis of Metabolic Pathways and Fluxes in a Newly Discovered Thermophilic and Ethanol-Tolerant Geobacillus Strain

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tang, Yinjie J.; Sapra, Rajat; Joyner, Dominique; Hazen, Terry C.; Myers, Samuel; Reichmuth, David; Blanch, Harvey; Keasling, Jay D.

2009-01-20

A recently discovered thermophilic bacterium, Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius M10EXG, ferments a range of C5 (e.g., xylose) and C6 sugars (e.g., glucose) and istolerant to high ethanol concentrations (10percent, v/v). We have investigated the central metabolism of this bacterium using both in vitro enzyme assays and 13C-based flux analysis to provide insights into the physiological properties of this extremophile and explore its metabolism for bio-ethanol or other bioprocess applications. Our findings show that glucose metabolism in G. thermoglucosidasius M10EXG proceeds via glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway, and the TCA cycle; the Entner?Doudoroff pathway and transhydrogenase activity were not detected. Anaplerotic reactions (including the glyoxylate shunt, pyruvate carboxylase, and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase) were active, but fluxes through those pathways could not be accuratelydetermined using amino acid labeling. When growth conditions were switched from aerobic to micro-aerobic conditions, fluxes (based on a normalized glucose uptake rate of 100 units (g DCW)-1 h-1) through the TCA cycle and oxidative pentose phosphate pathway were reduced from 64+-3 to 25+-2 and from 30+-2 to 19+-2, respectively. The carbon flux under micro-aerobic growth was directed formate. Under fully anerobic conditions, G. thermoglucosidasius M10EXG used a mixed acid fermentation process and exhibited a maximum ethanol yield of 0.38+-0.07 mol mol-1 glucose. In silico flux balance modeling demonstrates that lactate and acetate production from G. thermoglucosidasius M10EXG reduces the maximum ethanol yieldby approximately threefold, thus indicating that both pathways should be modified to maximize ethanol production.

Metabolic-flux analysis of hydrogen production pathway in Citrobacter amalonaticus Y19

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oh, You-Kwan; Kim, Mi-Sun [Bioenergy Research Center, Korea Institute of Energy Research, Daejeon 305-343 (Korea); Kim, Heung-Joo; Park, Sunghoon [Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and Institute for Environmental Technology and Industry, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735 (Korea); Ryu, Dewey D.Y. [Biochemical Engineering Program, Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 (United States)

2008-03-15

For the newly isolated chemoheterotrophic bacterium Citrobacter amalonaticus Y19, anaerobic glucose metabolism and hydrogen (H{sub 2}) production pathway were studied using batch cultivation and an in silico metabolic-flux analysis. Batch cultivation was conducted under varying initial glucose concentration between 1.5 and 9.5 g/L with quantitative measurement of major metabolites to obtain accurate carbon material balance. The metabolic flux of Y19 was analyzed using a metabolic-pathway model which was constructed from 81 biochemical reactions. The linear optimization program MetaFluxNet was employed for the analysis. When the specific growth rate of cells was chosen as an objective function, the model described the batch culture characteristics of Ci. amalonaticus Y19 reasonably well. When the specific H{sub 2} production rate was selected as an objective function, on the other hand, the achievable maximal H{sub 2} production yield (8.7molH{sub 2}/mol glucose) and the metabolic pathway enabling the high H{sub 2} yield were identified. The pathway involved non-native NAD(P)-linked hydrogenase and H{sub 2} production from NAD(P)H which were supplied at a high rate from glucose degradation through the pentose phosphate pathway. (author)

Multi-variant pathway association analysis reveals the importance of genetic determinants of estrogen metabolism in breast and endometrial cancer susceptibility.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yen Ling Low

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Despite the central role of estrogen exposure in breast and endometrial cancer development and numerous studies of genes in the estrogen metabolic pathway, polymorphisms within the pathway have not been consistently associated with these cancers. We posit that this is due to the complexity of multiple weak genetic effects within the metabolic pathway that can only be effectively detected through multi-variant analysis. We conducted a comprehensive association analysis of the estrogen metabolic pathway by interrogating 239 tagSNPs within 35 genes of the pathway in three tumor samples. The discovery sample consisted of 1,596 breast cancer cases, 719 endometrial cancer cases, and 1,730 controls from Sweden; and the validation sample included 2,245 breast cancer cases and 1,287 controls from Finland. We performed admixture maximum likelihood (AML-based global tests to evaluate the cumulative effect from multiple SNPs within the whole metabolic pathway and three sub-pathways for androgen synthesis, androgen-to-estrogen conversion, and estrogen removal. In the discovery sample, although no single polymorphism was significant after correction for multiple testing, the pathway-based AML global test suggested association with both breast (p(global = 0.034 and endometrial (p(global = 0.052 cancers. Further testing revealed the association to be focused on polymorphisms within the androgen-to-estrogen conversion sub-pathway, for both breast (p(global = 0.008 and endometrial cancer (p(global = 0.014. The sub-pathway association was validated in the Finnish sample of breast cancer (p(global = 0.015. Further tumor subtype analysis demonstrated that the association of the androgen-to-estrogen conversion sub-pathway was confined to postmenopausal women with sporadic estrogen receptor positive tumors (p(global = 0.0003. Gene-based AML analysis suggested CYP19A1 and UGT2B4 to be the major players within the sub-pathway. Our study indicates that the composite

Differential selection on carotenoid biosynthesis genes as a function of gene position in the metabolic pathway: a study on the carrot and dicots.

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Jérémy Clotault

Full Text Available Selection of genes involved in metabolic pathways could target them differently depending on the position of genes in the pathway and on their role in controlling metabolic fluxes. This hypothesis was tested in the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway using population genetics and phylogenetics.Evolutionary rates of seven genes distributed along the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway, IPI, PDS, CRTISO, LCYB, LCYE, CHXE and ZEP, were compared in seven dicot taxa. A survey of deviations from neutrality expectations at these genes was also undertaken in cultivated carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus, a species that has been intensely bred for carotenoid pattern diversification in its root during its cultivation history. Parts of sequences of these genes were obtained from 46 individuals representing a wide diversity of cultivated carrots. Downstream genes exhibited higher deviations from neutral expectations than upstream genes. Comparisons of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitution rates between genes among dicots revealed greater constraints on upstream genes than on downstream genes. An excess of intermediate frequency polymorphisms, high nucleotide diversity and/or high differentiation of CRTISO, LCYB1 and LCYE in cultivated carrot suggest that balancing selection may have targeted genes acting centrally in the pathway.Our results are consistent with relaxed constraints on downstream genes and selection targeting the central enzymes of the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway during carrot breeding history.

Metabolic Engineering of the Shikimate Pathway for Production of Aromatics and Derived Compounds—Present and Future Strain Construction Strategies

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Nils J. H. Averesch

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The aromatic nature of shikimate pathway intermediates gives rise to a wealth of potential bio-replacements for commonly fossil fuel-derived aromatics, as well as naturally produced secondary metabolites. Through metabolic engineering, the abundance of certain intermediates may be increased, while draining flux from other branches off the pathway. Often targets for genetic engineering lie beyond the shikimate pathway, altering flux deep in central metabolism. This has been extensively used to develop microbial production systems for a variety of compounds valuable in chemical industry, including aromatic and non-aromatic acids like muconic acid, para-hydroxybenzoic acid, and para-coumaric acid, as well as aminobenzoic acids and aromatic α-amino acids. Further, many natural products and secondary metabolites that are valuable in food- and pharma-industry are formed outgoing from shikimate pathway intermediates. (Reconstruction of such routes has been shown by de novo production of resveratrol, reticuline, opioids, and vanillin. In this review, strain construction strategies are compared across organisms and put into perspective with requirements by industry for commercial viability. Focus is put on enhancing flux to and through shikimate pathway, and engineering strategies are assessed in order to provide a guideline for future optimizations.

Making metabolism accessible and meaningful: is the definition of a central metabolic dogma within reach?

Science.gov (United States)

LaRossa, Robert A

2015-04-01

Intermediary metabolism, a dominant research area before the emergence of molecular biology, is attracting renewed interest for fundamental and applied reasons as documented here. Nonetheless, the field may appear to be a thicket precluding entry to all but the most determined. Here we present a metabolic overview that makes this important and fascinating area accessible to a broad range of the molecular biological and biotechnological communities that are being attracted to biological problems crying out for metabolic solutions. This is accomplished by identifying seven key concepts, a so-called metabolic central dogma, that provide a core understanding analogous to the "Central Dogma of Molecular Biology" which focused upon maintenance and flow of genetic information.

The return of metabolism: biochemistry and physiology of the pentose phosphate pathway

Science.gov (United States)

Stincone, Anna; Prigione, Alessandro; Cramer, Thorsten; Wamelink, Mirjam M. C.; Campbell, Kate; Cheung, Eric; Olin-Sandoval, Viridiana; Grüning, Nana-Maria; Krüger, Antje; Alam, Mohammad Tauqeer; Keller, Markus A.; Breitenbach, Michael; Brindle, Kevin M.; Rabinowitz, Joshua D.; Ralser, Markus

2015-01-01

The pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) is a fundamental component of cellular metabolism. The PPP is important to maintain carbon homoeostasis, to provide precursors for nucleotide and amino acid biosynthesis, to provide reducing molecules for anabolism, and to defeat oxidative stress. The PPP shares reactions with the Entner–Doudoroff pathway and Calvin cycle and divides into an oxidative and non-oxidative branch. The oxidative branch is highly active in most eukaryotes and converts glucose 6-phosphate into carbon dioxide, ribulose 5-phosphate and NADPH. The latter function is critical to maintain redox balance under stress situations, when cells proliferate rapidly, in ageing, and for the ‘Warburg effect’ of cancer cells. The non-oxidative branch instead is virtually ubiquitous, and metabolizes the glycolytic intermediates fructose 6-phosphate and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate as well as sedoheptulose sugars, yielding ribose 5-phosphate for the synthesis of nucleic acids and sugar phosphate precursors for the synthesis of amino acids. Whereas the oxidative PPP is considered unidirectional, the non-oxidative branch can supply glycolysis with intermediates derived from ribose 5-phosphate and vice versa, depending on the biochemical demand. These functions require dynamic regulation of the PPP pathway that is achieved through hierarchical interactions between transcriptome, proteome and metabolome. Consequently, the biochemistry and regulation of this pathway, while still unresolved in many cases, are archetypal for the dynamics of the metabolic network of the cell. In this comprehensive article we review seminal work that led to the discovery and description of the pathway that date back now for 80 years, and address recent results about genetic and metabolic mechanisms that regulate its activity. These biochemical principles are discussed in the context of PPP deficiencies causing metabolic disease and the role of this pathway in biotechnology, bacterial and

Quantitative trait loci and metabolic pathways

Science.gov (United States)

McMullen, M. D.; Byrne, P. F.; Snook, M. E.; Wiseman, B. R.; Lee, E. A.; Widstrom, N. W.; Coe, E. H.

1998-01-01

The interpretation of quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies is limited by the lack of information on metabolic pathways leading to most economic traits. Inferences about the roles of the underlying genes with a pathway or the nature of their interaction with other loci are generally not possible. An exception is resistance to the corn earworm Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) in maize (Zea mays L.) because of maysin, a C-glycosyl flavone synthesized in silks via a branch of the well characterized flavonoid pathway. Our results using flavone synthesis as a model QTL system indicate: (i) the importance of regulatory loci as QTLs, (ii) the importance of interconnecting biochemical pathways on product levels, (iii) evidence for “channeling” of intermediates, allowing independent synthesis of related compounds, (iv) the utility of QTL analysis in clarifying the role of specific genes in a biochemical pathway, and (v) identification of a previously unknown locus on chromosome 9S affecting flavone level. A greater understanding of the genetic basis of maysin synthesis and associated corn earworm resistance should lead to improved breeding strategies. More broadly, the insights gained in relating a defined genetic and biochemical pathway affecting a quantitative trait should enhance interpretation of the biological basis of variation for other quantitative traits. PMID:9482823

Controlled sumoylation of the mevalonate pathway enzyme HMGS-1 regulates metabolism during aging

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sapir, Amir; Tsur, Assaf; Koorman, Thijs; Ching, Kaitlin; Mishra, Prashant; Bardenheier, Annabelle; Podolsky, Lisa; Bening-Abu-Shach, Ulrike; Boxem, Mike; Chou, Tsui-Fen; Broday, Limor; Sternberg, Paul W

2014-01-01

Many metabolic pathways are critically regulated during development and aging but little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying this regulation. One key metabolic cascade in eukaryotes is the mevalonate pathway. It catalyzes the synthesis of sterol and nonsterol isoprenoids, such as

Nucleotide metabolism in Lactococcus lactis: Salvage pathways of exogenous pyrimidines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martinussen, Jan; Andersen, Paal Skytt; Hammer, Karin

1994-01-01

By measuring enzyme activities in crude extracts and studying the effect of toxic analogs (5-fluoropyrimidines) on cell growth, the metabolism of pyrimidines in Lactococcus lactis was analyzed. Pathways by which uracil, uridine, deoxyuridine, cytidine, and deoxycytidine are metabolized in L. lact...

Metabolic Flux Analysis of Shewanella spp. Reveals Evolutionary Robustness in Central Carbon Metabolism

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tang, Yinjie J.; Martin, Hector Garcia; Dehal, Paramvir S.; Deutschbauer, Adam; Llora, Xavier; Meadows, Adam; Arkin, Adam; Keasling, Jay D.

2009-08-19

Shewanella spp. are a group of facultative anaerobic bacteria widely distributed in marine and fresh-water environments. In this study, we profiled the central metabolic fluxes of eight recently sequenced Shewanella species grown under the same condition in minimal med-ium with [3-13C] lactate. Although the tested Shewanella species had slightly different growth rates (0.23-0.29 h31) and produced different amounts of acetate and pyruvate during early exponential growth (pseudo-steady state), the relative intracellular metabolic flux distributions were remarkably similar. This result indicates that Shewanella species share similar regulation in regard to central carbon metabolic fluxes under steady growth conditions: the maintenance of metabolic robustness is not only evident in a single species under genetic perturbations (Fischer and Sauer, 2005; Nat Genet 37(6):636-640), but also observed through evolutionary related microbial species. This remarkable conservation of relative flux profiles through phylogenetic differences prompts us to introduce the concept of metabotype as an alternative scheme to classify microbial fluxomics. On the other hand, Shewanella spp. display flexibility in the relative flux profiles when switching their metabolism from consuming lactate to consuming pyruvate and acetate.

Features of an altered AMPK metabolic pathway in Gilbert’s Syndrome, and its role in metabolic health

OpenAIRE

Christine Mölzer; Marlies Wallner; Carina Kern; Anela Tosevska; Ursula Schwarz; Rene Zadnikar; Daniel Doberer; Rodrig Marculescu; Karl-Heinz Wagner

2016-01-01

Energy metabolism, involving the ATP-dependent AMPK-PgC-Ppar pathway impacts metabolic health immensely, in that its impairment can lead to obesity, giving rise to disease. Based on observations that individuals with Gilbert?s syndrome (GS; UGT1A1 *28 promoter mutation) are generally lighter, leaner and healthier than controls, specific inter-group differences in the AMPK pathway regulation were explored. Therefore, a case-control study involving 120 fasted, healthy, age- and gender matched s...

Oral cancer cells may rewire alternative metabolic pathways to survive from siRNA silencing of metabolic enzymes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Min; Chai, Yang D; Brumbaugh, Jeffrey; Liu, Xiaojun; Rabii, Ramin; Feng, Sizhe; Misuno, Kaori; Messadi, Diana; Hu, Shen

2014-01-01

Cancer cells may undergo metabolic adaptations that support their growth as well as drug resistance properties. The purpose of this study is to test if oral cancer cells can overcome the metabolic defects introduced by using small interfering RNA (siRNA) to knock down their expression of important metabolic enzymes. UM1 and UM2 oral cancer cells were transfected with siRNA to transketolase (TKT) or siRNA to adenylate kinase (AK2), and Western blotting was used to confirm the knockdown. Cellular uptake of glucose and glutamine and production of lactate were compared between the cancer cells with either TKT or AK2 knockdown and those transfected with control siRNA. Statistical analysis was performed with student T-test. Despite the defect in the pentose phosphate pathway caused by siRNA knockdown of TKT, the survived UM1 or UM2 cells utilized more glucose and glutamine and secreted a significantly higher amount of lactate than the cells transferred with control siRNA. We also demonstrated that siRNA knockdown of AK2 constrained the proliferation of UM1 and UM2 cells but similarly led to an increased uptake of glucose/glutamine and production of lactate by the UM1 or UM2 cells survived from siRNA silencing of AK2. Our results indicate that the metabolic defects introduced by siRNA silencing of metabolic enzymes TKT or AK2 may be compensated by alternative feedback metabolic mechanisms, suggesting that cancer cells may overcome single defective pathways through secondary metabolic network adaptations. The highly robust nature of oral cancer cell metabolism implies that a systematic medical approach targeting multiple metabolic pathways may be needed to accomplish the continued improvement of cancer treatment

CAMPways: constrained alignment framework for the comparative analysis of a pair of metabolic pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Abaka, Gamze; Bıyıkoğlu, Türker; Erten, Cesim

2013-07-01

Given a pair of metabolic pathways, an alignment of the pathways corresponds to a mapping between similar substructures of the pair. Successful alignments may provide useful applications in phylogenetic tree reconstruction, drug design and overall may enhance our understanding of cellular metabolism. We consider the problem of providing one-to-many alignments of reactions in a pair of metabolic pathways. We first provide a constrained alignment framework applicable to the problem. We show that the constrained alignment problem even in a primitive setting is computationally intractable, which justifies efforts for designing efficient heuristics. We present our Constrained Alignment of Metabolic Pathways (CAMPways) algorithm designed for this purpose. Through extensive experiments involving a large pathway database, we demonstrate that when compared with a state-of-the-art alternative, the CAMPways algorithm provides better alignment results on metabolic networks as far as measures based on same-pathway inclusion and biochemical significance are concerned. The execution speed of our algorithm constitutes yet another important improvement over alternative algorithms. Open source codes, executable binary, useful scripts, all the experimental data and the results are freely available as part of the Supplementary Material at http://code.google.com/p/campways/. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Changes of in vivo fluxes through central metabolic pathways during the production of nystatin by Streptomyces noursei in batch culture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jonsbu, E.; Christensen, Bjarke; Nielsen, Jens

2001-01-01

The central carbon metabolism of the nystatin-producing strain Streptomyces noursei ATCC 11455 was evaluated by C-13-labelling experiments. A batch fermentation was examined during the idiophase by GC-MS measurements of the labelling patterns of amino acids in the biomass. The labelling patterns...

Understanding alternative fluxes/effluxes through comparative metabolic pathway analysis of phylum actinobacteria using a simplified approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Verma, Mansi; Lal, Devi; Saxena, Anjali; Anand, Shailly; Kaur, Jasvinder; Kaur, Jaspreet; Lal, Rup

2013-12-01

Actinobacteria are known for their diverse metabolism and physiology. Some are dreadful human pathogens whereas some constitute the natural flora for human gut. Therefore, the understanding of metabolic pathways is a key feature for targeting the pathogenic bacteria without disturbing the symbiotic ones. A big challenge faced today is multiple drug resistance by Mycobacterium and other pathogens that utilize alternative fluxes/effluxes. With the availability of genome sequence, it is now feasible to conduct the comparative in silico analysis. Here we present a simplified approach to compare metabolic pathways so that the species specific enzyme may be traced and engineered for future therapeutics. The analyses of four key carbohydrate metabolic pathways, i.e., glycolysis, pyruvate metabolism, tri carboxylic acid cycle and pentose phosphate pathway suggest the presence of alternative fluxes. It was found that the upper pathway of glycolysis was highly variable in the actinobacterial genomes whereas lower glycolytic pathway was highly conserved. Likewise, pentose phosphate pathway was well conserved in contradiction to TCA cycle, which was found to be incomplete in majority of actinobacteria. The clustering based on presence and absence of genes of these metabolic pathways clearly revealed that members of different genera shared identical pathways and, therefore, provided an easy method to identify the metabolic similarities/differences between pathogenic and symbiotic organisms. The analyses could identify isoenzymes and some key enzymes that were found to be missing in some pathogenic actinobacteria. The present work defines a simple approach to explore the effluxes in four metabolic pathways within the phylum actinobacteria. The analysis clearly reflects that actinobacteria exhibit diverse routes for metabolizing substrates. The pathway comparison can help in finding the enzymes that can be used as drug targets for pathogens without effecting symbiotic organisms

The Application of the Weighted k-Partite Graph Problem to the Multiple Alignment for Metabolic Pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Wenbin; Hendrix, William; Samatova, Nagiza F

2017-12-01

The problem of aligning multiple metabolic pathways is one of very challenging problems in computational biology. A metabolic pathway consists of three types of entities: reactions, compounds, and enzymes. Based on similarities between enzymes, Tohsato et al. gave an algorithm for aligning multiple metabolic pathways. However, the algorithm given by Tohsato et al. neglects the similarities among reactions, compounds, enzymes, and pathway topology. How to design algorithms for the alignment problem of multiple metabolic pathways based on the similarity of reactions, compounds, and enzymes? It is a difficult computational problem. In this article, we propose an algorithm for the problem of aligning multiple metabolic pathways based on the similarities among reactions, compounds, enzymes, and pathway topology. First, we compute a weight between each pair of like entities in different input pathways based on the entities' similarity score and topological structure using Ay et al.'s methods. We then construct a weighted k-partite graph for the reactions, compounds, and enzymes. We extract a mapping between these entities by solving the maximum-weighted k-partite matching problem by applying a novel heuristic algorithm. By analyzing the alignment results of multiple pathways in different organisms, we show that the alignments found by our algorithm correctly identify common subnetworks among multiple pathways.

Rule Mining Techniques to Predict Prokaryotic Metabolic Pathways

KAUST Repository

Saidi, Rabie

2017-08-28

It is becoming more evident that computational methods are needed for the identification and the mapping of pathways in new genomes. We introduce an automatic annotation system (ARBA4Path Association Rule-Based Annotator for Pathways) that utilizes rule mining techniques to predict metabolic pathways across wide range of prokaryotes. It was demonstrated that specific combinations of protein domains (recorded in our rules) strongly determine pathways in which proteins are involved and thus provide information that let us very accurately assign pathway membership (with precision of 0.999 and recall of 0.966) to proteins of a given prokaryotic taxon. Our system can be used to enhance the quality of automatically generated annotations as well as annotating proteins with unknown function. The prediction models are represented in the form of human-readable rules, and they can be used effectively to add absent pathway information to many proteins in UniProtKB/TrEMBL database.

Rule Mining Techniques to Predict Prokaryotic Metabolic Pathways

KAUST Repository

Saidi, Rabie; Boudellioua, Imene; Martin, Maria J.; Solovyev, Victor

2017-01-01

It is becoming more evident that computational methods are needed for the identification and the mapping of pathways in new genomes. We introduce an automatic annotation system (ARBA4Path Association Rule-Based Annotator for Pathways) that utilizes rule mining techniques to predict metabolic pathways across wide range of prokaryotes. It was demonstrated that specific combinations of protein domains (recorded in our rules) strongly determine pathways in which proteins are involved and thus provide information that let us very accurately assign pathway membership (with precision of 0.999 and recall of 0.966) to proteins of a given prokaryotic taxon. Our system can be used to enhance the quality of automatically generated annotations as well as annotating proteins with unknown function. The prediction models are represented in the form of human-readable rules, and they can be used effectively to add absent pathway information to many proteins in UniProtKB/TrEMBL database.

In silico analysis of phytohormone metabolism and communication pathways in citrus transcriptome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vera Quecini

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Plant hormones play a crucial role in integrating endogenous and exogenous signals and in determining developmental responses to form the plant body throughout its life cycle. In citrus species, several economically important processes are controlled by phytohormones, including seed germination, secondary growth, fruit abscission and ripening. Integrative genomics is a powerful tool for linking newly researched organisms, such as tropical woody species, to functional studies already carried out on established model organisms. Based on gene orthology analyses and expression patterns, we searched the Citrus Genome Sequencing Consortium (CitEST database for Expressed Sequence Tags (EST consensus sequences sharing similarity to known components of hormone metabolism and signaling pathways in model species. More than 600 homologs of functionally characterized hormone metabolism and signal transduction members from model species were identified in citrus, allowing us to propose a framework for phytohormone signaling mechanisms in citrus. A number of components from hormone-related metabolic pathways were absent in citrus, suggesting the presence of distinct metabolic pathways. Our results demonstrated the power of comparative genomics between model systems and economically important crop species to elucidate several aspects of plant physiology and metabolism.

Enhancing microbial production of biofuels by expanding microbial metabolic pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Ping; Chen, Xingge; Li, Peng

2017-09-01

Fatty acid, isoprenoid, and alcohol pathways have been successfully engineered to produce biofuels. By introducing three genes, atfA, adhE, and pdc, into Escherichia coli to expand fatty acid pathway, up to 1.28 g/L of fatty acid ethyl esters can be achieved. The isoprenoid pathway can be expanded to produce bisabolene with a high titer of 900 mg/L in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Short- and long-chain alcohols can also be effectively biosynthesized by extending the carbon chain of ketoacids with an engineered "+1" alcohol pathway. Thus, it can be concluded that expanding microbial metabolic pathways has enormous potential for enhancing microbial production of biofuels for future industrial applications. However, some major challenges for microbial production of biofuels should be overcome to compete with traditional fossil fuels: lowering production costs, reducing the time required to construct genetic elements and to increase their predictability and reliability, and creating reusable parts with useful and predictable behavior. To address these challenges, several aspects should be further considered in future: mining and transformation of genetic elements related to metabolic pathways, assembling biofuel elements and coordinating their functions, enhancing the tolerance of host cells to biofuels, and creating modular subpathways that can be easily interconnected. © 2016 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Plasma metabolomics reveal the correlation of metabolic pathways and Prakritis of humans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amey Shirolkar

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Ayurveda, an ancient Indian medicinal system, has categorized human body constitutions in three broad constitutional types (prakritis i.e. Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Objectives: Analysis of plasma metabolites and related pathways to classify Prakriti specific dominant marker metabolites and metabolic pathways. Materials and methods: 38 healthy male individuals were assessed for dominant Prakritis and their fasting blood samples were collected. The processed plasma samples were subjected to rapid resolution liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (RRLC–ESI–QTOFMS. Mass profiles were aligned and subjected to multivariate analysis. Results: Partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA model showed 97.87% recognition capability. List of PLS-DA metabolites was subjected to permutative Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR correction and final list of 76 metabolites with p  2.0 was identified. Pathway analysis using metascape and JEPETTO plugins in Cytoscape revealed that steroidal hormone biosynthesis, amino acid, and arachidonic acid metabolism are major pathways varying with different constitution. Biological Go processes analysis showed that aromatic amino acids, sphingolipids, and pyrimidine nucleotides metabolic processes were dominant in kapha type of body constitution. Fat soluble vitamins, cellular amino acid, and androgen biosynthesis process along with branched chain amino acid and glycerolipid catabolic processes were dominant in pitta type individuals. Vata Prakriti was found to have dominant catecholamine, arachidonic acid and hydrogen peroxide metabolomics processes. Conclusion: The neurotransmission and oxidative stress in vata, BCAA catabolic, androgen, xenobiotics metabolic processes in pitta, and aromatic amino acids, sphingolipid, and pyrimidine metabolic process in kapha Prakriti were the dominant marker pathways. Keywords: Ayurveda, Prakriti, Human

The CD36-PPARγ Pathway in Metabolic Disorders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Loïze Maréchal

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Uncovering the biological role of nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs has greatly advanced our knowledge of the transcriptional control of glucose and energy metabolism. As such, pharmacological activation of PPARγ has emerged as an efficient approach for treating metabolic disorders with the current use of thiazolidinediones to improve insulin resistance in diabetic patients. The recent identification of growth hormone releasing peptides (GHRP as potent inducers of PPARγ through activation of the scavenger receptor CD36 has defined a novel alternative to regulate essential aspects of lipid and energy metabolism. Recent advances on the emerging role of CD36 and GHRP hexarelin in regulating PPARγ downstream actions with benefits on atherosclerosis, hepatic cholesterol biosynthesis and fat mitochondrial biogenesis are summarized here. The response of PPARγ coactivator PGC-1 is also discussed in these effects. The identification of the GHRP-CD36-PPARγ pathway in controlling various tissue metabolic functions provides an interesting option for metabolic disorders.

Unique Microbial Diversity and Metabolic Pathway Features of Fermented Vegetables From Hainan, China

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Qiannan; Jiang, Shuaiming; Chen, Jieling; Ma, Chenchen; Huo, Dongxue; Shao, Yuyu; Zhang, Jiachao

2018-01-01

Fermented vegetables are typically traditional foods made of fresh vegetables and their juices, which are fermented by beneficial microorganisms. Herein, we applied high-throughput sequencing and culture-dependent technology to describe the diversities of microbiota and identify core microbiota in fermented vegetables from different areas of Hainan Province, and abundant metabolic pathways in the fermented vegetables were simultaneously predicted. At the genus level, Lactobacillus bacteria were the most abundant. Lactobacillus plantarum was the most abundant species, followed by Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus pentosaceus, and Weissella cibaria. These species were present in each sample with average absolute content values greater than 1% and were thus defined as core microbiota. Analysis results based on the alpha and beta diversities of the microbial communities showed that the microbial profiles of the fermented vegetables differed significantly based on the regions and raw materials used, and the species of the vegetables had a greater effect on the microbial community structure than the region from where they were harvested. Regarding microbial functional metabolism, we observed an enrichment of metabolic pathways, including membrane transport, replication and repair and translation, which implied that the microbial metabolism in the fermented vegetables tended to be vigorous. In addition, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus fermentum were calculated to be major metabolic pathway contributors. Finally, we constructed a network to better explain correlations among the core microbiota and metabolic pathways. This study facilitates an understanding of the differences in microbial profiles and fermentation pathways involved in the production of fermented vegetables, establishes a basis for optimally selecting microorganisms to manufacture high-quality fermented vegetable products, and lays the foundation for better utilizing tropical microbial

Unique Microbial Diversity and Metabolic Pathway Features of Fermented Vegetables From Hainan, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qiannan Peng

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Fermented vegetables are typically traditional foods made of fresh vegetables and their juices, which are fermented by beneficial microorganisms. Herein, we applied high-throughput sequencing and culture-dependent technology to describe the diversities of microbiota and identify core microbiota in fermented vegetables from different areas of Hainan Province, and abundant metabolic pathways in the fermented vegetables were simultaneously predicted. At the genus level, Lactobacillus bacteria were the most abundant. Lactobacillus plantarum was the most abundant species, followed by Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus pentosaceus, and Weissella cibaria. These species were present in each sample with average absolute content values greater than 1% and were thus defined as core microbiota. Analysis results based on the alpha and beta diversities of the microbial communities showed that the microbial profiles of the fermented vegetables differed significantly based on the regions and raw materials used, and the species of the vegetables had a greater effect on the microbial community structure than the region from where they were harvested. Regarding microbial functional metabolism, we observed an enrichment of metabolic pathways, including membrane transport, replication and repair and translation, which implied that the microbial metabolism in the fermented vegetables tended to be vigorous. In addition, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus fermentum were calculated to be major metabolic pathway contributors. Finally, we constructed a network to better explain correlations among the core microbiota and metabolic pathways. This study facilitates an understanding of the differences in microbial profiles and fermentation pathways involved in the production of fermented vegetables, establishes a basis for optimally selecting microorganisms to manufacture high-quality fermented vegetable products, and lays the foundation for better utilizing

Metabolic profiling reveals reprogramming of lipid metabolic pathways in treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome with 3-iodothyronamine.

Science.gov (United States)

Selen Alpergin, Ebru S; Bolandnazar, Zeinab; Sabatini, Martina; Rogowski, Michael; Chiellini, Grazia; Zucchi, Riccardo; Assadi-Porter, Fariba M

2017-01-01

Complex diseases such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are associated with intricate pathophysiological, hormonal, and metabolic feedbacks that make their early diagnosis challenging, thus increasing the prevalence risks for obesity, cardiovascular, and fatty liver diseases. To explore the crosstalk between endocrine and lipid metabolic pathways, we administered 3-iodothyronamine (T1AM), a natural analog of thyroid hormone, in a mouse model of PCOS and analyzed plasma and tissue extracts using multidisciplinary omics and biochemical approaches. T1AM administration induces a profound tissue-specific antilipogenic effect in liver and muscle by lowering gene expression of key regulators of lipid metabolism, PTP1B and PLIN2, significantly increasing metabolites (glucogenic, amino acids, carnitine, and citrate) levels, while enhancing protection against oxidative stress. In contrast, T1AM has an opposing effect on the regulation of estrogenic pathways in the ovary by upregulating STAR, CYP11A1, and CYP17A1. Biochemical measurements provide further evidence of significant reduction in liver cholesterol and triglycerides in post-T1AM treatment. Our results shed light onto tissue-specific metabolic vs. hormonal pathway interactions, thus illuminating the intricacies within the pathophysiology of PCOS This study opens up new avenues to design drugs for targeted therapeutics to improve quality of life in complex metabolic diseases. © 2017 The Authors. Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society.

Metabolism of chlorofluorocarbons and polybrominated compounds by Pseudomonas putida G786(pHG-2) via an engineered metabolic pathway.

Science.gov (United States)

Hur, H G; Sadowsky, M J; Wackett, L P

1994-11-01

The recombinant bacterium Pseudomonas putida G786(pHG-2) metabolizes pentachloroethane to glyoxylate and carbon dioxide, using cytochrome P-450CAM and toluene dioxygenase to catalyze consecutive reductive and oxidative dehalogenation reactions (L.P. Wackett, M.J. Sadowsky, L.N. Newman, H.-G. Hur, and S. Li, Nature [London] 368:627-629, 1994). The present study investigated metabolism of brominated and chlorofluorocarbon compounds by the recombinant strain. Under anaerobic conditions, P. putida G786(pHG-2) reduced 1,1,2,2-tetrabromoethane, 1,2-dibromo-1,2-dichloroethane, and 1,1,1,2-tetrachloro-2,2-difluoroethane to products bearing fewer halogen substituents. Under aerobic conditions, P. putida G786(pHG-2) oxidized cis- and trans-1,2-dibromoethenes, 1,1-dichloro-2,2-difluoroethene, and 1,2-dichloro-1-fluoroethene. Several compounds were metabolized by sequential reductive and oxidative reactions via the constructed metabolic pathway. For example, 1,1,2,2-tetrabromoethane was reduced by cytochrome P-450CAM to 1,2-dibromoethenes, which were subsequently oxidized by toluene dioxygenase. The same pathway metabolized 1,1,1,2-tetrachloro-2,2-difluoroethane to oxalic acid as one of the final products. The results obtained in this study indicate that P. putida G786(pHG-2) metabolizes polyfluorinated, chlorinated, and brominated compounds and further demonstrates the value of using a knowledge of catabolic enzymes and recombinant DNA technology to construct useful metabolic pathways.

Integration of C1 and C2 Metabolism in Trees

OpenAIRE

Jardine, Kolby J.; Fernandes de Souza, Vinicius; Oikawa, Patty; Higuchi, Niro; Bill, Markus; Porras, Rachel; Niinemets, Ülo; Chambers, Jeffrey Q.

2017-01-01

C1 metabolism in plants is known to be involved in photorespiration, nitrogen and amino acid metabolism, as well as methylation and biosynthesis of metabolites and biopolymers. Although the flux of carbon through the C1 pathway is thought to be large, its intermediates are difficult to measure and relatively little is known about this potentially ubiquitous pathway. In this study, we evaluated the C1 pathway and its integration with the central metabolism using aqueous solutions of 13C-labele...

Biosynthetic Pathway and Metabolic Engineering of Plant Dihydrochalcones.

Science.gov (United States)

Ibdah, Mwafaq; Martens, Stefan; Gang, David R

2018-03-14

Dihydrochalcones are plant natural products containing the phenylpropanoid backbone and derived from the plant-specific phenylpropanoid pathway. Dihydrochalcone compounds are important in plant growth and response to stresses and, thus, can have large impacts on agricultural activity. In recent years, these compounds have also received increased attention from the biomedical community for their potential as anticancer treatments and other benefits for human health. However, they are typically produced at relatively low levels in plants. Therefore, an attractive alternative is to express the plant biosynthetic pathway genes in microbial hosts and to engineer the metabolic pathway/host to improve the production of these metabolites. In the present review, we discuss in detail the functions of genes and enzymes involved in the biosynthetic pathway of the dihydrochalcones and the recent strategies and achievements used in the reconstruction of multi-enzyme pathways in microorganisms in efforts to be able to attain higher amounts of desired dihydrochalcones.

Identification of the Entner-Doudoroff pathway in an antibiotic-producing actinomycete species

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gunnarsson, Nina; Mortensen, Uffe Hasbro; Sosio, M.

2004-01-01

the primary metabolic pathways of the poorly characterized antibiotic-producing actinomycete Nonomuraea sp. ATCC 39727. Surprisingly, it was found that Nonomuraea sp. ATCC 39272 predominantly metabolizes glucose via the Entner-Doudoroff (ED) pathway. This represents the first time that the ED pathway has been...... to design metabolic engineering strategies towards construction of more efficient producers of specific metabolites. In this context, methods that allow rapid and reliable mapping of the central carbon metabolism are valuable. In the present study, a C-13 labelling-based method was used to identify...... recognized as the main catabolic pathway in an actinomycete. The Nonomuraea genes encoding the key enzymes of the ED pathway were subsequently identified, sequenced and functionally described....

3-Bromopyruvate treatment induces alterations of metabolic and stress-related pathways in glioblastoma cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiasserini, Davide; Davidescu, Magdalena; Orvietani, Pier Luigi; Susta, Federica; Macchioni, Lara; Petricciuolo, Maya; Castigli, Emilia; Roberti, Rita; Binaglia, Luciano; Corazzi, Lanfranco

2017-01-30

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive brain tumour of adults. The metabolic phenotype of GBM cells is highly dependent on glycolysis; therefore, therapeutic strategies aimed at interfering with glycolytic pathways are under consideration. 3-Bromopyruvate (3BP) is a potent antiglycolytic agent, with a variety of targets and possible effects on global cell metabolism. Here we analyzed the changes in protein expression on a GBM cell line (GL15 cells) caused by 3BP treatment using a global proteomic approach. Validation of differential protein expression was performed with immunoblotting and enzyme activity assays in GL15 and U251 cell lines. The results show that treatment of GL15 cells with 3BP leads to extensive changes in the expression of glycolytic enzymes and stress related proteins. Importantly, other metabolisms were also affected, including pentose phosphate pathway, aminoacid synthesis, and glucose derivatives production. 3BP elicited the activation of stress response proteins, as shown by the phosphorylation of HSPB1 at serine 82, caused by the concomitant activation of the p38 pathway. Our results show that inhibition of glycolysis in GL15 cells by 3BP influences different but interconnected pathways. Proteome analysis may help in the molecular characterization of the glioblastoma response induced by pharmacological treatment with antiglycolytic agents. Alteration of the glycolytic pathway characterizes glioblastoma (GBM), one of the most common brain tumours. Metabolic reprogramming with agents able to inhibit carbohydrate metabolism might be a viable strategy to complement the treatment of these tumours. The antiglycolytic agent 3-bromopyruvate (3BP) is able to strongly inhibit glycolysis but it may affect also other cellular pathways and its precise cellular targets are currently unknown. To understand the protein expression changes induced by 3BP, we performed a global proteomic analysis of a GBM cell line (GL15) treated with 3BP. We

Responsive eLearning exercises to enhance student interaction with metabolic pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Roesler, William J; Dreaver-Charles, Kristine

2018-05-01

Successful learning of biochemistry requires students to engage with the material. In the past this often involved students writing out pathways by hand, and more recently directing students to online resources such as videos, songs, and animated slide presentations. However, even these latter resources do not really provide students an opportunity to engage with the material in an active fashion. As part of an online introductory metabolism course that was developed at our university, we created a series of twelve online interactive activities using Adobe Captivate 9. These activities targeted glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, the pentose phosphate pathway, glycogen metabolism, the citric acid cycle, and fatty acid oxidation. The interactive exercises consisted of two types. One involved dragging objects such as names of enzymes or allosteric modifiers to their correct drop locations such as a particular point in a metabolic pathway, a specific enzyme, and so forth. A second type involved clicking on objects, locations within a pathway, and so forth, in response to a particular question. In both types of exercises, students received feedback on their decisions in order to enhance learning. The student feedback received on these activities was very positive, and indicated that they found them to increase their confidence in the material and that they had learned the key principles of each pathway. © 2018 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 46(3):223-229, 2018. © 2018 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Human Cytomegalovirus: Coordinating Cellular Stress, Signaling, and Metabolic Pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Shenk, Thomas; Alwine, James C

2014-11-01

Viruses face a multitude of challenges when they infect a host cell. Cells have evolved innate defenses to protect against pathogens, and an infecting virus may induce a stress response that antagonizes viral replication. Further, the metabolic, oxidative, and cell cycle state may not be conducive to the viral infection. But viruses are fabulous manipulators, inducing host cells to use their own characteristic mechanisms and pathways to provide what the virus needs. This article centers on the manipulation of host cell metabolism by human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). We review the features of the metabolic program instituted by the virus, discuss the mechanisms underlying these dramatic metabolic changes, and consider how the altered program creates a synthetic milieu that favors efficient HCMV replication and spread.

Mitochondrial quality control pathways as determinants of metabolic health

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Held, Ntsiki M.; Houtkooper, Riekelt H.

2015-01-01

Mitochondrial function is key for maintaining cellular health, while mitochondrial failure is associated with various pathologies, including inherited metabolic disorders and age-related diseases. In order to maintain mitochondrial quality, several pathways of mitochondrial quality control have

Central melanin-concentrating hormone influences liver and adipose metabolism via specific hypothalamic nuclei and efferent autonomic/JNK1 pathways.

OpenAIRE

Imbernon, Monica; Beiroa, Daniel; Vázquez, María J.; Morgan, Donald A.; Veyrat–Durebex, Christelle; Porteiro, Begoña; Díaz–Arteaga, Adenis; Senra, Ana; Busquets, Silvia; Velásquez, Douglas A.; Al–Massadi, Omar; Varela, Luis; Gándara, Marina; López–Soriano, Francisco–Javier; Gallego, Rosalía

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND AIMS Specific neuronal circuits modulate autonomic outflow to liver and white adipose tissue. Melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) deficient mice are hypophagic lean and do not develop hepatosteatosis when fed a high fat diet. Herein we sought to investigate the role of MCH an orexigenic neuropeptide specifically expressed in the lateral hypothalamic area on hepatic and adipocyte metabolism. METHODS Chronic central administration of MCH and adenoviral vectors increasing MCH sign...

The Glymphatic Pathway.

Science.gov (United States)

Benveniste, Helene; Lee, Hedok; Volkow, Nora D

2017-01-01

The overall premise of this review is that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is transported within a dedicated peri-vascular network facilitating metabolic waste clearance from the central nervous system while we sleep. The anatomical profile of the network is complex and has been defined as a peri-arterial CSF influx pathway and peri-venous clearance routes, which are functionally coupled by interstitial bulk flow supported by astrocytic aquaporin 4 water channels. The role of the newly discovered system in the brain is equivalent to the lymphatic system present in other body organs and has been termed the "glymphatic pathway" or "(g)lymphatics" because of its dependence on glial cells. We will discuss and review the general anatomy and physiology of CSF from the perspective of the glymphatic pathway, a discovery which has greatly improved our understanding of key factors that control removal of metabolic waste products from the central nervous system in health and disease and identifies an additional purpose for sleep. A brief historical and factual description of CSF production and transport will precede the ensuing discussion of the glymphatic system along with a discussion of its clinical implications.

DESHARKY: automatic design of metabolic pathways for optimal cell growth.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodrigo, Guillermo; Carrera, Javier; Prather, Kristala Jones; Jaramillo, Alfonso

2008-11-01

The biological solution for synthesis or remediation of organic compounds using living organisms, particularly bacteria and yeast, has been promoted because of the cost reduction with respect to the non-living chemical approach. In that way, computational frameworks can profit from the previous knowledge stored in large databases of compounds, enzymes and reactions. In addition, the cell behavior can be studied by modeling the cellular context. We have implemented a Monte Carlo algorithm (DESHARKY) that finds a metabolic pathway from a target compound by exploring a database of enzymatic reactions. DESHARKY outputs a biochemical route to the host metabolism together with its impact in the cellular context by using mathematical models of the cell resources and metabolism. Furthermore, we provide the sequence of amino acids for the enzymes involved in the route closest phylogenetically to the considered organism. We provide examples of designed metabolic pathways with their genetic load characterizations. Here, we have used Escherichia coli as host organism. In addition, our bioinformatic tool can be applied for biodegradation or biosynthesis and its performance scales with the database size. Software, a tutorial and examples are freely available and open source at http://soft.synth-bio.org/desharky.html

13C based proteinogenic amino acid (PAA) and metabolic flux ratio analysis of Lactococcus lactis reveals changes in pentose phosphate (PP) pathway in response to agitation and temperature related stresses.

Science.gov (United States)

Azizan, Kamalrul Azlan; Ressom, Habtom W; Mendoza, Eduardo R; Baharum, Syarul Nataqain

2017-01-01

Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris MG1363 is an important starter culture for dairy fermentation. During industrial fermentations, L. lactis is constantly exposed to stresses that affect the growth and performance of the bacterium. Although the response of L. lactis to several stresses has been described, the adaptation mechanisms at the level of in vivo fluxes have seldom been described. To gain insights into cellular metabolism, 13 C metabolic flux analysis and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) were used to measure the flux ratios of active pathways in the central metabolism of L. lactis when subjected to three conditions varying in temperature (30°C, 37°C) and agitation (with and without agitation at 150 rpm). Collectively, the concentrations of proteinogenic amino acids (PAAs) and free fatty acids (FAAs) were compared, and Pearson correlation analysis ( r ) was calculated to measure the pairwise relationship between PAAs. Branched chain and aromatic amino acids, threonine, serine, lysine and histidine were correlated strongly, suggesting changes in flux regulation in glycolysis, the pentose phosphate (PP) pathway, malic enzyme and anaplerotic reaction catalysed by pyruvate carboxylase (pycA). Flux ratio analysis revealed that glucose was mainly converted by glycolysis, highlighting the stability of L. lactis' central carbon metabolism despite different conditions. Higher flux ratios through oxaloacetate (OAA) from pyruvate (PYR) reaction in all conditions suggested the activation of pyruvate carboxylate (pycA) in L. lactis , in response to acid stress during exponential phase. Subsequently, more significant flux ratio differences were seen through the oxidative and non-oxidative pentose phosphate (PP) pathways, malic enzyme, and serine and C1 metabolism, suggesting NADPH requirements in response to environmental stimuli. These reactions could play an important role in optimization strategies for metabolic engineering in L. lactis . Overall, the

13C based proteinogenic amino acid (PAA and metabolic flux ratio analysis of Lactococcus lactis reveals changes in pentose phosphate (PP pathway in response to agitation and temperature related stresses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kamalrul Azlan Azizan

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris MG1363 is an important starter culture for dairy fermentation. During industrial fermentations, L. lactis is constantly exposed to stresses that affect the growth and performance of the bacterium. Although the response of L. lactis to several stresses has been described, the adaptation mechanisms at the level of in vivo fluxes have seldom been described. To gain insights into cellular metabolism, 13C metabolic flux analysis and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS were used to measure the flux ratios of active pathways in the central metabolism of L. lactis when subjected to three conditions varying in temperature (30°C, 37°C and agitation (with and without agitation at 150 rpm. Collectively, the concentrations of proteinogenic amino acids (PAAs and free fatty acids (FAAs were compared, and Pearson correlation analysis (r was calculated to measure the pairwise relationship between PAAs. Branched chain and aromatic amino acids, threonine, serine, lysine and histidine were correlated strongly, suggesting changes in flux regulation in glycolysis, the pentose phosphate (PP pathway, malic enzyme and anaplerotic reaction catalysed by pyruvate carboxylase (pycA. Flux ratio analysis revealed that glucose was mainly converted by glycolysis, highlighting the stability of L. lactis’ central carbon metabolism despite different conditions. Higher flux ratios through oxaloacetate (OAA from pyruvate (PYR reaction in all conditions suggested the activation of pyruvate carboxylate (pycA in L. lactis, in response to acid stress during exponential phase. Subsequently, more significant flux ratio differences were seen through the oxidative and non-oxidative pentose phosphate (PP pathways, malic enzyme, and serine and C1 metabolism, suggesting NADPH requirements in response to environmental stimuli. These reactions could play an important role in optimization strategies for metabolic engineering in L. lactis. Overall

13C based proteinogenic amino acid (PAA) and metabolic flux ratio analysis of Lactococcus lactis reveals changes in pentose phosphate (PP) pathway in response to agitation and temperature related stresses

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris MG1363 is an important starter culture for dairy fermentation. During industrial fermentations, L. lactis is constantly exposed to stresses that affect the growth and performance of the bacterium. Although the response of L. lactis to several stresses has been described, the adaptation mechanisms at the level of in vivo fluxes have seldom been described. To gain insights into cellular metabolism, 13C metabolic flux analysis and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) were used to measure the flux ratios of active pathways in the central metabolism of L. lactis when subjected to three conditions varying in temperature (30°C, 37°C) and agitation (with and without agitation at 150 rpm). Collectively, the concentrations of proteinogenic amino acids (PAAs) and free fatty acids (FAAs) were compared, and Pearson correlation analysis (r) was calculated to measure the pairwise relationship between PAAs. Branched chain and aromatic amino acids, threonine, serine, lysine and histidine were correlated strongly, suggesting changes in flux regulation in glycolysis, the pentose phosphate (PP) pathway, malic enzyme and anaplerotic reaction catalysed by pyruvate carboxylase (pycA). Flux ratio analysis revealed that glucose was mainly converted by glycolysis, highlighting the stability of L. lactis’ central carbon metabolism despite different conditions. Higher flux ratios through oxaloacetate (OAA) from pyruvate (PYR) reaction in all conditions suggested the activation of pyruvate carboxylate (pycA) in L. lactis, in response to acid stress during exponential phase. Subsequently, more significant flux ratio differences were seen through the oxidative and non-oxidative pentose phosphate (PP) pathways, malic enzyme, and serine and C1 metabolism, suggesting NADPH requirements in response to environmental stimuli. These reactions could play an important role in optimization strategies for metabolic engineering in L. lactis. Overall, the

Find_tfSBP: find thermodynamics-feasible and smallest balanced pathways with high yield from large-scale metabolic networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Zixiang; Sun, Jibin; Wu, Qiaqing; Zhu, Dunming

2017-12-11

Biologically meaningful metabolic pathways are important references in the design of industrial bacterium. At present, constraint-based method is the only way to model and simulate a genome-scale metabolic network under steady-state criteria. Due to the inadequate assumption of the relationship in gene-enzyme-reaction as one-to-one unique association, computational difficulty or ignoring the yield from substrate to product, previous pathway finding approaches can't be effectively applied to find out the high yield pathways that are mass balanced in stoichiometry. In addition, the shortest pathways may not be the pathways with high yield. At the same time, a pathway, which exists in stoichiometry, may not be feasible in thermodynamics. By using mixed integer programming strategy, we put forward an algorithm to identify all the smallest balanced pathways which convert the source compound to the target compound in large-scale metabolic networks. The resulting pathways by our method can finely satisfy the stoichiometric constraints and non-decomposability condition. Especially, the functions of high yield and thermodynamics feasibility have been considered in our approach. This tool is tailored to direct the metabolic engineering practice to enlarge the metabolic potentials of industrial strains by integrating the extensive metabolic network information built from systems biology dataset.

Unbiased plasma metabolomics reveal the correlation of metabolic pathways and Prakritis of humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Shirolkar, Amey; Chakraborty, Sutapa; Mandal, Tusharkanti; Dabur, Rajesh

2017-11-25

Ayurveda, an ancient Indian medicinal system, has categorized human body constitutions in three broad constitutional types (prakritis) i.e. Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Analysis of plasma metabolites and related pathways to classify Prakriti specific dominant marker metabolites and metabolic pathways. 38 healthy male individuals were assessed for dominant Prakritis and their fasting blood samples were collected. The processed plasma samples were subjected to rapid resolution liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (RRLC-ESI-QTOFMS). Mass profiles were aligned and subjected to multivariate analysis. Partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) model showed 97.87% recognition capability. List of PLS-DA metabolites was subjected to permutative Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) correction and final list of 76 metabolites with p  2.0 was identified. Pathway analysis using metascape and JEPETTO plugins in Cytoscape revealed that steroidal hormone biosynthesis, amino acid, and arachidonic acid metabolism are major pathways varying with different constitution. Biological Go processes analysis showed that aromatic amino acids, sphingolipids, and pyrimidine nucleotides metabolic processes were dominant in kapha type of body constitution. Fat soluble vitamins, cellular amino acid, and androgen biosynthesis process along with branched chain amino acid and glycerolipid catabolic processes were dominant in pitta type individuals. Vata Prakriti was found to have dominant catecholamine, arachidonic acid and hydrogen peroxide metabolomics processes. The neurotransmission and oxidative stress in vata, BCAA catabolic, androgen, xenobiotics metabolic processes in pitta, and aromatic amino acids, sphingolipid, and pyrimidine metabolic process in kaphaPrakriti were the dominant marker pathways. Copyright © 2017 Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore and World Ayurveda Foundation. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights

Dynamic optimal metabolic control theory: a cybernetic approach for modelling of the central nitrogen metabolism of S. cerevisiae

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Riel, van N.A.W.; Giuseppin, M.L.F.; Verrips, C.T.

2000-01-01

The theory of dynamic optimal metabolic control (DOMC), as developed by Giuseppin and Van Riel (Metab. Eng., 2000), is applied to model the central nitrogen metabolism (CNM) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The CNM represents a typical system encountered in advanced metabolic engineering. The CNM is the

Identification of Discriminating Metabolic Pathways and Metabolites in Human PBMCs Stimulated by Various Pathogenic Agents

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Xiang Zhang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Immunity and cellular metabolism are tightly interconnected but it is not clear whether different pathogens elicit specific metabolic responses. To address this issue, we studied differential metabolic regulation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs of healthy volunteers challenged by Candida albicans, Borrelia burgdorferi, lipopolysaccharide, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis in vitro. By integrating gene expression data of stimulated PBMCs of healthy individuals with the KEGG pathways, we identified both common and pathogen-specific regulated pathways depending on the time of incubation. At 4 h of incubation, pathogenic agents inhibited expression of genes involved in both the glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation pathways. In contrast, at 24 h of incubation, particularly glycolysis was enhanced while genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation remained unaltered in the PBMCs. In general, differential gene expression was less pronounced at 4 h compared to 24 h of incubation. KEGG pathway analysis allowed differentiation between effects induced by Candida and bacterial stimuli. Application of genome-scale metabolic model further generated a Candida-specific set of 103 reporter metabolites (e.g., desmosterol that might serve as biomarkers discriminating Candida-stimulated PBMCs from bacteria-stimuated PBMCs. Our analysis also identified a set of 49 metabolites that allowed discrimination between the effects of Borrelia burgdorferi, lipopolysaccharide and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We conclude that analysis of pathogen-induced effects on PBMCs by a combination of KEGG pathways and genome-scale metabolic model provides deep insight in the metabolic changes coupled to host defense.

Engineering the fatty acid metabolic pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae for advanced biofuel production

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Xiaoling Tang

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Fatty acid-derived fuels and chemicals have attracted a great deal of attention in recent decades, due to their following properties of high compatibility to gasoline-based fuels and existing infrastructure for their direct utilization, storage and distribution. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the ideal biofuel producing candidate, based on the wealth of available genetic information and versatile tools designed to manipulate its metabolic pathways. Engineering the fatty acid metabolic pathways in S. cerevisiae is an effective strategy to increase its fatty acid biosynthesis and provide more pathway precursors for production of targeted products. This review summarizes the recent progress in metabolic engineering of yeast cells for fatty acids and fatty acid derivatives production, including the regulation of acetyl-CoA biosynthesis, NADPH production, fatty acid elongation, and the accumulation of activated precursors of fatty acids for converting enzymes. By introducing specific enzymes in the engineered strains, a powerful platform with a scalable, controllable and economic route for advanced biofuel production has been established. Keywords: Metabolic engineering, Fatty acid biosynthesis, Fatty acid derivatives, Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Genetic response to metabolic fluctuations: correlation between central carbon metabolism and DNA replication in Escherichia coli

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Szalewska-Pałasz Agnieszka

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Until now, the direct link between central carbon metabolism and DNA replication has been demonstrated only in Bacillus. subtilis. Therefore, we asked if this is a specific phenomenon, characteristic for this bacterium and perhaps for its close relatives, or a more general biological rule. Results We found that temperature-sensitivity of mutants in particular genes coding for replication proteins could be suppressed by deletions of certain genes coding for enzymes of the central carbon metabolism. Namely, the effects of dnaA46(ts mutation could be suppressed by dysfunction of pta or ackA, effects of dnaB(ts by dysfunction of pgi or pta, effects of dnaE486(ts by dysfunction of tktB, effects of dnaG(ts by dysfunction of gpmA, pta or ackA, and effects of dnaN159(ts by dysfunction of pta or ackA. The observed suppression effects were not caused by a decrease in bacterial growth rate. Conclusions The genetic correlation exists between central carbon metabolism and DNA replication in the model Gram-negative bacterium, E. coli. This link exists at the steps of initiation and elongation of DNA replication, indicating the important global correlation between metabolic status of the cell and the events leading to cell reproduction.

Metagenomic Analysis of Hot Springs in Central India Reveals Hydrocarbon Degrading Thermophiles and Pathways Essential for Survival in Extreme Environments

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Saxena, Rituja; Dhakan, Darshan B.; Mittal, Parul; Waiker, Prashant; Chowdhury, Anirban; Ghatak, Arundhuti; Sharma, Vineet K.

2017-01-01

Extreme ecosystems such as hot springs are of great interest as a source of novel extremophilic species, enzymes, metabolic functions for survival and biotechnological products. India harbors hundreds of hot springs, the majority of which are not yet explored and require comprehensive studies to unravel their unknown and untapped phylogenetic and functional diversity. The aim of this study was to perform a large-scale metagenomic analysis of three major hot springs located in central India namely, Badi Anhoni, Chhoti Anhoni, and Tattapani at two geographically distinct regions (Anhoni and Tattapani), to uncover the resident microbial community and their metabolic traits. Samples were collected from seven distinct sites of the three hot spring locations with temperature ranging from 43.5 to 98°C. The 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of V3 hypervariable region and shotgun metagenome sequencing uncovered a unique taxonomic and metabolic diversity of the resident thermophilic microbial community in these hot springs. Genes associated with hydrocarbon degradation pathways, such as benzoate, xylene, toluene, and benzene were observed to be abundant in the Anhoni hot springs (43.5–55°C), dominated by Pseudomonas stutzeri and Acidovorax sp., suggesting the presence of chemoorganotrophic thermophilic community with the ability to utilize complex hydrocarbons as a source of energy. A high abundance of genes belonging to methane metabolism pathway was observed at Chhoti Anhoni hot spring, where methane is reported to constitute >80% of all the emitted gases, which was marked by the high abundance of Methylococcus capsulatus. The Tattapani hot spring, with a high-temperature range (61.5–98°C), displayed a lower microbial diversity and was primarily dominated by a nitrate-reducing archaeal species Pyrobaculum aerophilum. A higher abundance of cell metabolism pathways essential for the microbial survival in extreme conditions was observed at Tattapani. Taken together

The metabolic response of Candida albicans to farnesol under hyphae-inducing conditions.

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Han, Ting-Li; Cannon, Richard D; Villas-Bôas, Silas G

2012-12-01

Farnesol is a quorum-sensing molecule (QSM) produced, and sensed, by the polymorphic fungus, Candida albicans. This cell-to-cell communication molecule is known to suppress the hyphal formation of C. albicans at high cell density. Despite many studies investigating the signalling mechanisms by which QSMs influence the morphogenesis of C. albicans, the downstream metabolic effect of these signalling pathways in response to farnesol-mediated morphogenesis remains obscure. Here, we have used metabolomics to investigate the metabolic response of C. albicans upon exposure to farnesol under hyphae-inducing conditions. We have found a general up-regulation of central carbon metabolic pathways when hyphal formation was suppressed by farnesol evidenced by a considerably larger number of central carbon metabolic intermediates detected under this condition at an overall lower intracellular level. By combining the metabolic profiles from farnesol-exposed cells with previous metabolomics data for C. albicans undergoing morphogenesis, we have identified several metabolic pathways that are likely to be associated with the morphogenetic process of C. albicans, as well as metabolic pathways such as those involved in lipid metabolism that appeared to be specifically affected by farnesol. Therefore, our results provide important new insights into the metabolic role of farnesol in C. albicans metabolism. © 2012 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Obesity-driven gut microbiota inflammatory pathways to metabolic syndrome

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Luiz Henrique Agra eCavalcante-Silva

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The intimate interplay between immune system, metabolism and gut microbiota plays an important role in controlling metabolic homeostasis and possible obesity development. Obesity involves impairment of immune response affecting both innate and adaptive immunity. The main factors involved in the relationship of obesity with inflammation have not been completely elucidated. On the other hand, gut microbiota, via innate immune receptors, has emerged as one of the key factors regulating events triggering acute inflammation associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome. Inflammatory disorders lead to several signalling transduction pathways activation, inflammatory cytokine, chemokine production and cell migration, which in turn cause metabolic dysfunction. Inflamed adipose tissue, with increased macrophages infiltration, is associated with impaired preadipocyte development and differentiation to mature adipose cells, leading to ectopic lipid accumulation and insulin resistance. This review focuses on the relationship between obesity and inflammation, which is essential to understand the pathological mechanisms governing metabolic syndrome.

Compromised Integrity of Central Visual Pathways in Patients With Macular Degeneration.

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Malania, Maka; Konrad, Julia; Jägle, Herbert; Werner, John S; Greenlee, Mark W

2017-06-01

Macular degeneration (MD) affects the central retina and leads to gradual loss of foveal vision. Although, photoreceptors are primarily affected in MD, the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and central visual pathways may also be altered subsequent to photoreceptor degeneration. Here we investigate whether retinal damage caused by MD alters microstructural properties of visual pathways using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Six MD patients and six healthy control subjects participated in the study. Retinal images were obtained by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Diffusion tensor images (DTI) and high-resolution T1-weighted structural images were collected for each subject. We used diffusion-based tensor modeling and probabilistic fiber tractography to identify the optic tract (OT) and optic radiations (OR), as well as nonvisual pathways (corticospinal tract and anterior fibers of corpus callosum). Fractional anisotropy (FA) and axial and radial diffusivity values (AD, RD) were calculated along the nonvisual and visual pathways. Measurement of RNFL thickness reveals that the temporal circumpapillary retinal nerve fiber layer was significantly thinner in eyes with macular degeneration than normal. While we did not find significant differences in diffusion properties in nonvisual pathways, patients showed significant changes in diffusion scalars (FA, RD, and AD) both in OT and OR. The results indicate that the RNFL and the white matter of the visual pathways are significantly altered in MD patients. Damage to the photoreceptors in MD leads to atrophy of the ganglion cell axons and to corresponding changes in microstructural properties of central visual pathways.

Central Pathways Integrating Metabolism and Reproduction in Teleosts

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Shahjahan, Md.; Kitahashi, Takashi; Parhar, Ishwar S.

2014-01-01

Energy balance plays an important role in the control of reproduction. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms connecting the two systems are not well understood especially in teleosts. The hypothalamus plays a crucial role in the regulation of both energy balance and reproduction, and contains a number of neuropeptides, including gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), orexin, neuropeptide-Y, ghrelin, pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide, α-melanocyte stimulating hormone, melanin-concentrating hormone, cholecystokinin, 26RFamide, nesfatin, kisspeptin, and gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone. These neuropeptides are involved in the control of energy balance and reproduction either directly or indirectly. On the other hand, synthesis and release of these hypothalamic neuropeptides are regulated by metabolic signals from the gut and the adipose tissue. Furthermore, neurons producing these neuropeptides interact with each other, providing neuronal basis of the link between energy balance and reproduction. This review summarizes the advances made in our understanding of the physiological roles of the hypothalamic neuropeptides in energy balance and reproduction in teleosts, and discusses how they interact with GnRH, kisspeptin, and pituitary gonadotropins to control reproduction in teleosts. PMID:24723910

Engineering the spatial organization of metabolic pathways

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Albertsen, Line; Maury, Jerome; Bach, Lars Stougaard

One of the goals of metabolic engineering is to optimize the production of valuable metabolites in cell factories. In this context, modulating the gene expression and activity of enzymes are tools that have been extensively used. Another approach that is gaining interest is the engineering...... of the spatial organization of biosynthetic pathways. Several natural systems for ensuring optimal spatial arrangement of biosynthetic enzymes exist. Sequentially acting enzymes can for example be positioned in close proximity by attachment to cellular structures, up-concentration in membrane enclosed organelles...... or assembly into large complexes. The vision is that by positioning sequentially acting enzymes in close proximity, the cell can accelerate reaction rates and thereby prevent loss of intermediates through diffusion, degradation or competing pathways. The production of valuable metabolites in cell factories...

Reconstruction of the central carbon metabolism of Aspergillus niger

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

David, Helga; Åkesson, Mats Fredrik; Nielsen, Jens

2003-01-01

The topology of central carbon metabolism of Aspergillus niger was identified and the metabolic network reconstructed, by integrating genomic, biochemical and physiological information available for this microorganism and other related fungi. The reconstructed network may serve as a valuable...... of metabolic fluxes using metabolite balancing. This framework was employed to perform an in silico characterisation of the phenotypic behaviour of A. niger grown on different carbon sources. The effects on growth of single reaction deletions were assessed and essential biochemical reactions were identified...... for different carbon sources. Furthermore, application of the stoichiometric model for assessing the metabolic capabilities of A. niger to produce metabolites was evaluated by using succinate production as a case study....

Role of Heme and Heme-Proteins in Trypanosomatid Essential Metabolic Pathways

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Karina E. J. Tripodi

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Around the world, trypanosomatids are known for being etiological agents of several highly disabling and often fatal diseases like Chagas disease (Trypanosoma cruzi, leishmaniasis (Leishmania spp., and African trypanosomiasis (Trypanosoma brucei. Throughout their life cycle, they must cope with diverse environmental conditions, and the mechanisms involved in these processes are crucial for their survival. In this review, we describe the role of heme in several essential metabolic pathways of these protozoans. Notwithstanding trypanosomatids lack of the complete heme biosynthetic pathway, we focus our discussion in the metabolic role played for important heme-proteins, like cytochromes. Although several genes for different types of cytochromes, involved in mitochondrial respiration, polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism, and sterol biosynthesis, are annotated at the Tritryp Genome Project, the encoded proteins have not yet been deeply studied. We pointed our attention into relevant aspects of these protein functions that are amenable to be considered for rational design of trypanocidal agents.

Characterizability of metabolic pathway systems from time series data.

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Voit, Eberhard O

2013-12-01

Over the past decade, the biomathematical community has devoted substantial effort to the complicated challenge of estimating parameter values for biological systems models. An even more difficult issue is the characterization of functional forms for the processes that govern these systems. Most parameter estimation approaches tacitly assume that these forms are known or can be assumed with some validity. However, this assumption is not always true. The recently proposed method of Dynamic Flux Estimation (DFE) addresses this problem in a genuinely novel fashion for metabolic pathway systems. Specifically, DFE allows the characterization of fluxes within such systems through an analysis of metabolic time series data. Its main drawback is the fact that DFE can only directly be applied if the pathway system contains as many metabolites as unknown fluxes. This situation is unfortunately rare. To overcome this roadblock, earlier work in this field had proposed strategies for augmenting the set of unknown fluxes with independent kinetic information, which however is not always available. Employing Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse methods of linear algebra, the present article discusses an approach for characterizing fluxes from metabolic time series data that is applicable even if the pathway system is underdetermined and contains more fluxes than metabolites. Intriguingly, this approach is independent of a specific modeling framework and unaffected by noise in the experimental time series data. The results reveal whether any fluxes may be characterized and, if so, which subset is characterizable. They also help with the identification of fluxes that, if they could be determined independently, would allow the application of DFE. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Systems-wide metabolic pathway engineering in Corynebacterium glutamicum for bio-based production of diaminopentane.

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Kind, Stefanie; Jeong, Weol Kyu; Schröder, Hartwig; Wittmann, Christoph

2010-07-01

In the present work the Gram-positive bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum was engineered into an efficient, tailor-made production strain for diaminopentane (cadaverine), a highly attractive building block for bio-based polyamides. The engineering comprised expression of lysine decarboxylase (ldcC) from Escherichia coli, catalyzing the conversion of lysine into diaminopentane, and systems-wide metabolic engineering of central supporting pathways. Substantially re-designing the metabolism yielded superior strains with desirable properties such as (i) the release from unwanted feedback regulation at the level of aspartokinase and pyruvate carboxylase by introducing the point mutations lysC311 and pycA458, (ii) an optimized supply of the key precursor oxaloacetate by amplifying the anaplerotic enzyme, pyruvate carboxylase, and deleting phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase which otherwise removes oxaloacetate, (iii) enhanced biosynthetic flux via combined amplification of aspartokinase, dihydrodipicolinate reductase, diaminopimelate dehydrogenase and diaminopimelate decarboxylase, and (iv) attenuated flux into the threonine pathway competing with production by the leaky mutation hom59 in the homoserine dehydrogenase gene. Lysine decarboxylase proved to be a bottleneck for efficient production, since its in vitro activity and in vivo flux were closely correlated. To achieve an optimal strain having only stable genomic modifications, the combination of the strong constitutive C. glutamicum tuf promoter and optimized codon usage allowed efficient genome-based ldcC expression and resulted in a high diaminopentane yield of 200 mmol mol(-1). By supplementing the medium with 1 mgL(-1) pyridoxal, the cofactor of lysine decarboxylase, the yield was increased to 300 mmol mol(-1). In the production strain obtained, lysine secretion was almost completely abolished. Metabolic analysis, however, revealed substantial formation of an as yet unknown by-product. It was identified as an

Central neural pathways for thermoregulation

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Morrison, Shaun F.; Nakamura, Kazuhiro

2010-01-01

Central neural circuits orchestrate a homeostatic repertoire to maintain body temperature during environmental temperature challenges and to alter body temperature during the inflammatory response. This review summarizes the functional organization of the neural pathways through which cutaneous thermal receptors alter thermoregulatory effectors: the cutaneous circulation for heat loss, the brown adipose tissue, skeletal muscle and heart for thermogenesis and species-dependent mechanisms (sweating, panting and saliva spreading) for evaporative heat loss. These effectors are regulated by parallel but distinct, effector-specific neural pathways that share a common peripheral thermal sensory input. The thermal afferent circuits include cutaneous thermal receptors, spinal dorsal horn neurons and lateral parabrachial nucleus neurons projecting to the preoptic area to influence warm-sensitive, inhibitory output neurons which control thermogenesis-promoting neurons in the dorsomedial hypothalamus that project to premotor neurons in the rostral ventromedial medulla, including the raphe pallidus, that descend to provide the excitation necessary to drive thermogenic thermal effectors. A distinct population of warm-sensitive preoptic neurons controls heat loss through an inhibitory input to raphe pallidus neurons controlling cutaneous vasoconstriction. PMID:21196160

Microbial pathways in colonic sulfur metabolism and links with health and disease

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Franck eCarbonero

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Sulfur is both crucial to life and a potential threat to health. While colonic sulfur metabolism mediated by eukaryotic cells is relatively well studied, much less is known about sulfur metabolism within gastrointestinal microbes. Sulfated compounds in the colon are either of inorganic (e.g., sulfates, sulfites or organic (e.g., dietary amino acids and host mucins origin. The most extensively studied of the microbes involved in colonic sulfur metabolism are the sulfate-reducing bacteria, which are common colonic inhabitants. Many other microbial pathways are likely to shape colonic sulfur metabolism as well as the composition and availability of sulfated compounds, and these interactions need to be examined in more detail. Hydrogen sulfide is the sulfur derivative that has attracted the most attention in the context of colonic health, and the extent to which it is detrimental or beneficial remains in debate. Several lines of evidence point to sulfate-reducing bacteria or exogenous hydrogen sulfide as potential players in the etiology of intestinal disorders, inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer in particular. Generation of hydrogen sulfide via pathways other than dissimilatory sulfate reduction may be as, or more, important than those involving the sulfate-reducing bacteria. We suggest here that a novel axis of research is to assess the effects of hydrogen sulfide in shaping colonic microbiome structure. Clearly, in-depth characterization of the microbial pathways involved in colonic sulfur metabolism is necessary for a better understanding of its contribution to colonic disorders and development of therapeutic strategies.

Genome-Based Construction of the Metabolic Pathways of Orientia tsutsugamushi and Comparative Analysis within the Rickettsiales Order

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Chan-Ki Min

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Orientia tsutsugamushi, the causative agent of scrub typhus, is an obligate intracellular bacterium that belongs to the order of Rickettsiales. Recently, we have reported that O. tsutsugamushi has a unique genomic structure, consisting of highly repetitive sequences, and suggested that it may provide valuable insight into the evolution of intracellular bacteria. Here, we have used genomic information to construct the major metabolic pathways of O. tsutsugamushi and performed a comparative analysis of the metabolic genes and pathways of O. tsutsugamushi with other members of the Rickettsiales order. While O. tsutsugamushi has the largest genome among the members of this order, mainly due to the presence of repeated sequences, its metabolic pathways have been highly streamlined. Overall, the metabolic pathways of O. tsutsugamushi were similar to Rickettsia but there were notable differences in several pathways including carbohydrate metabolism, the TCA cycle, and the synthesis of cell wall components as well as in the transport systems. Our results will provide a useful guide to the postgenomic analysis of O. tsutsugamushi and lead to a better understanding of the virulence and physiology of this intracellular pathogen.

Cocoa procyanidins modulate transcriptional pathways linked to inflammation and metabolism in human dendritic cells

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Midttun, Helene L E; Ramsay, Aina; Mueller-Harvey, Irene

2018-01-01

the mechanistic basis of this inhibition, here we conducted transcriptomic analysis on DCs cultured with either LPS or LPS combined with oligomeric cocoa PC. Procyanidins suppressed a number of genes encoding cytokines and chemokines such as CXCL1, but also genes involved in the cGMP pathway such as GUCY1A3...... (encoding guanylate cyclase soluble subunit alpha-3). Upregulated genes were involved in diverse metabolic pathways, but notably two of the four most upregulated genes (NMB, encoding neuromedin B and ADCY3, encoding adenyl cyclase type 3) were involved in the cAMP signalling pathway. Gene-set enrichment...... analysis demonstrated that upregulated gene pathways were primarily involved in nutrient transport, carbohydrate metabolism and lysosome function, whereas down-regulated gene pathways involved cell cycle, signal transduction and gene transcription, as well as immune function. qPCR analysis verified...

Validation of RetroPath, a computer-aided design tool for metabolic pathway engineering.

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Fehér, Tamás; Planson, Anne-Gaëlle; Carbonell, Pablo; Fernández-Castané, Alfred; Grigoras, Ioana; Dariy, Ekaterina; Perret, Alain; Faulon, Jean-Loup

2014-11-01

Metabolic engineering has succeeded in biosynthesis of numerous commodity or high value compounds. However, the choice of pathways and enzymes used for production was many times made ad hoc, or required expert knowledge of the specific biochemical reactions. In order to rationalize the process of engineering producer strains, we developed the computer-aided design (CAD) tool RetroPath that explores and enumerates metabolic pathways connecting the endogenous metabolites of a chassis cell to the target compound. To experimentally validate our tool, we constructed 12 top-ranked enzyme combinations producing the flavonoid pinocembrin, four of which displayed significant yields. Namely, our tool queried the enzymes found in metabolic databases based on their annotated and predicted activities. Next, it ranked pathways based on the predicted efficiency of the available enzymes, the toxicity of the intermediate metabolites and the calculated maximum product flux. To implement the top-ranking pathway, our procedure narrowed down a list of nine million possible enzyme combinations to 12, a number easily assembled and tested. One round of metabolic network optimization based on RetroPath output further increased pinocembrin titers 17-fold. In total, 12 out of the 13 enzymes tested in this work displayed a relative performance that was in accordance with its predicted score. These results validate the ranking function of our CAD tool, and open the way to its utilization in the biosynthesis of novel compounds. Copyright © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Metabolic engineering of biosynthetic pathway for production of renewable biofuels.

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Singh, Vijai; Mani, Indra; Chaudhary, Dharmendra Kumar; Dhar, Pawan Kumar

2014-02-01

Metabolic engineering is an important area of research that involves editing genetic networks to overproduce a certain substance by the cells. Using a combination of genetic, metabolic, and modeling methods, useful substances have been synthesized in the past at industrial scale and in a cost-effective manner. Currently, metabolic engineering is being used to produce sufficient, economical, and eco-friendly biofuels. In the recent past, a number of efforts have been made towards engineering biosynthetic pathways for large scale and efficient production of biofuels from biomass. Given the adoption of metabolic engineering approaches by the biofuel industry, this paper reviews various approaches towards the production and enhancement of renewable biofuels such as ethanol, butanol, isopropanol, hydrogen, and biodiesel. We have also identified specific areas where more work needs to be done in the future.

NemaPath: online exploration of KEGG-based metabolic pathways for nematodes

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Wang Zhengyuan

2008-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Nematode.net http://www.nematode.net is a web-accessible resource for investigating gene sequences from parasitic and free-living nematode genomes. Beyond the well-characterized model nematode C. elegans, over 500,000 expressed sequence tags (ESTs and nearly 600,000 genome survey sequences (GSSs have been generated from 36 nematode species as part of the Parasitic Nematode Genomics Program undertaken by the Genome Center at Washington University School of Medicine. However, these sequencing data are not present in most publicly available protein databases, which only include sequences in Swiss-Prot. Swiss-Prot, in turn, relies on GenBank/Embl/DDJP for predicted proteins from complete genomes or full-length proteins. Description Here we present the NemaPath pathway server, a web-based pathway-level visualization tool for navigating putative metabolic pathways for over 30 nematode species, including 27 parasites. The NemaPath approach consists of two parts: 1 a backend tool to align and evaluate nematode genomic sequences (curated EST contigs against the annotated Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG protein database; 2 a web viewing application that displays annotated KEGG pathway maps based on desired confidence levels of primary sequence similarity as defined by a user. NemaPath also provides cross-referenced access to nematode genome information provided by other tools available on Nematode.net, including: detailed NemaGene EST cluster information; putative translations; GBrowse EST cluster views; links from nematode data to external databases for corresponding synonymous C. elegans counterparts, subject matches in KEGG's gene database, and also KEGG Ontology (KO identification. Conclusion The NemaPath server hosts metabolic pathway mappings for 30 nematode species and is available on the World Wide Web at http://nematode.net/cgi-bin/keggview.cgi. The nematode source sequences used for the metabolic pathway

NAD+ salvage pathway in cancer metabolism and therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy, Barry E; Sharif, Tanveer; Martell, Emma; Dai, Cathleen; Kim, Youra; Lee, Patrick W K; Gujar, Shashi A

2016-12-01

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD + ) is an essential coenzyme for various physiological processes including energy metabolism, DNA repair, cell growth, and cell death. Many of these pathways are typically dysregulated in cancer cells, making NAD + an intriguing target for cancer therapeutics. NAD + is mainly synthesized by the NAD + salvage pathway in cancer cells, and not surprisingly, the pharmacological targeting of the NAD + salvage pathway causes cancer cell cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo. Several studies have described the precise consequences of NAD + depletion on cancer biology, and have demonstrated that NAD+ depletion results in depletion of energy levels through lowered rates of glycolysis, reduced citric acid cycle activity, and decreased oxidative phosphorylation. Additionally, depletion of NAD + causes sensitization of cancer cells to oxidative damage by disruption of the anti-oxidant defense system, decreased cell proliferation, and initiation of cell death through manipulation of cell signaling pathways (e.g., SIRT1 and p53). Recently, studies have explored the effect of well-known cancer therapeutics in combination with pharmacological depletion of NAD + levels, and found in many cases a synergistic effect on cancer cell cytotoxicity. In this context, we will discuss the effects of NAD + salvage pathway inhibition on cancer cell biology and provide insight on this pathway as a novel anti-cancer therapeutic target. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparison of Metabolic Pathways in Escherichia coli by Using Genetic Algorithms

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Patricia Ortegon

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In order to understand how cellular metabolism has taken its modern form, the conservation and variations between metabolic pathways were evaluated by using a genetic algorithm (GA. The GA approach considered information on the complete metabolism of the bacterium Escherichia coli K-12, as deposited in the KEGG database, and the enzymes belonging to a particular pathway were transformed into enzymatic step sequences by using the breadth-first search algorithm. These sequences represent contiguous enzymes linked to each other, based on their catalytic activities as they are encoded in the Enzyme Commission numbers. In a posterior step, these sequences were compared using a GA in an all-against-all (pairwise comparisons approach. Individual reactions were chosen based on their measure of fitness to act as parents of offspring, which constitute the new generation. The sequences compared were used to construct a similarity matrix (of fitness values that was then considered to be clustered by using a k-medoids algorithm. A total of 34 clusters of conserved reactions were obtained, and their sequences were finally aligned with a multiple-sequence alignment GA optimized to align all the reaction sequences included in each group or cluster. From these comparisons, maps associated with the metabolism of similar compounds also contained similar enzymatic step sequences, reinforcing the Patchwork Model for the evolution of metabolism in E. coli K-12, an observation that can be expanded to other organisms, for which there is metabolism information. Finally, our mapping of these reactions is discussed, with illustrations from a particular case.

Systems assessment of transcriptional regulation on central carbon metabolism by Cra and CRP.

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Kim, Donghyuk; Seo, Sang Woo; Gao, Ye; Nam, Hojung; Guzman, Gabriela I; Cho, Byung-Kwan; Palsson, Bernhard O

2018-04-06

Two major transcriptional regulators of carbon metabolism in bacteria are Cra and CRP. CRP is considered to be the main mediator of catabolite repression. Unlike for CRP, in vivo DNA binding information of Cra is scarce. Here we generate and integrate ChIP-exo and RNA-seq data to identify 39 binding sites for Cra and 97 regulon genes that are regulated by Cra in Escherichia coli. An integrated metabolic-regulatory network was formed by including experimentally-derived regulatory information and a genome-scale metabolic network reconstruction. Applying analysis methods of systems biology to this integrated network showed that Cra enables optimal bacterial growth on poor carbon sources by redirecting and repressing glycolysis flux, by activating the glyoxylate shunt pathway, and by activating the respiratory pathway. In these regulatory mechanisms, the overriding regulatory activity of Cra over CRP is fundamental. Thus, elucidation of interacting transcriptional regulation of core carbon metabolism in bacteria by two key transcription factors was possible by combining genome-wide experimental measurement and simulation with a genome-scale metabolic model.

Discovery of new enzymes and metabolic pathways using structure and genome context

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Zhao, Suwen; Kumar, Ritesh; Sakai, Ayano; Vetting, Matthew W.; Wood, B. McKay; Brown, Shoshana; Bonanno, Jeffery B.; Hillerich, Brandan S.; Seidel, Ronald D.; Babbitt, Patricia C.; Almo, Steven C.; Sweedler, Jonathan V.; Gerlt, John A.; Cronan, John E.; Jacobson, Matthew P.

2014-01-01

Assigning valid functions to proteins identified in genome projects is challenging, with over-prediction and database annotation errors major concerns1. We, and others2, are developing computation-guided strategies for functional discovery using “metabolite docking” to experimentally derived3 or homology-based4 three-dimensional structures. Bacterial metabolic pathways often are encoded by “genome neighborhoods” (gene clusters and/or operons), which can provide important clues for functional assignment. We recently demonstrated the synergy of docking and pathway context by “predicting” the intermediates in the glycolytic pathway in E. coli5. Metabolite docking to multiple binding proteins/enzymes in the same pathway increases the reliability of in silico predictions of substrate specificities because the pathway intermediates are structurally similar. We report that structure-guided approaches for predicting the substrate specificities of several enzymes encoded by a bacterial gene cluster allowed i) the correct prediction of the in vitro activity of a structurally characterized enzyme of unknown function (PDB 2PMQ), 2-epimerization of trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline betaine (tHyp-B) and cis-4-hydroxy-D-proline betaine (cHyp-B), and ii) the correct identification of the catabolic pathway in which Hyp-B 2-epimerase participates. The substrate-liganded pose predicted by virtual library screening (docking) was confirmed experimentally. The enzymatic activities in the predicted pathway were confirmed by in vitro assays and genetic analyses; the intermediates were identified by metabolomics; and repression of the genes encoding the pathway by high salt was established by transcriptomics, confirming the osmolyte role of tHyp-B. This study establishes the utility of structure-guide functional predictions to enable the discovery of new metabolic pathways. PMID:24056934

Role of the Mixed-Lineage Protein Kinase Pathway in the Metabolic Stress Response to Obesity

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Shashi Kant

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Saturated free fatty acid (FFA is implicated in the metabolic response to obesity. In vitro studies indicate that FFA signaling may be mediated by the mixed-lineage protein kinase (MLK pathway that activates cJun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK. Here, we examined the role of the MLK pathway in vivo using a mouse model of diet-induced obesity. The ubiquitously expressed MLK2 and MLK3 protein kinases have partially redundant functions. We therefore compared wild-type and compound mutant mice that lack expression of MLK2 and MLK3. MLK deficiency protected mice against high-fat-diet-induced insulin resistance and obesity. Reduced JNK activation and increased energy expenditure contribute to the metabolic effects of MLK deficiency. These data confirm that the MLK pathway plays a critical role in the metabolic response to obesity.

Biosynthesis and metabolic fate of phenylalanine in conifers

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María Belén Pascual

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The amino acid phenylalanine (Phe is a critical metabolic node that plays an essential role in the interconnection between primary and secondary metabolism in plants. Phe is used as a protein building block but it is also as a precursor for numerous plant compounds that are crucial for plant reproduction, growth, development and defense against different types of stresses. The metabolism of Phe plays a central role in the channeling of carbon from photosynthesis to the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids. The study of this metabolic pathway is particularly relevant in trees, which divert large amounts of carbon into the biosynthesis of Phe-derived compounds, particularly lignin, an important constituent of wood. The trunks of trees are metabolic sinks that consume a considerable percentage of carbon and energy from photosynthesis, and carbon is finally immobilized in wood. This paper reviews recent advances in the biosynthesis and metabolic utilization of Phe in conifer trees. Two alternative routes have been identified: the ancient phenylpyruvate pathway that is present in microorganisms, and the arogenate pathway that possibly evolved later during plant evolution. Additionally, an efficient nitrogen recycling mechanism is required to maintain sustained growth during xylem formation. The relevance of phenylalanine metabolic pathways in wood formation, the biotic interactions and ultraviolet protection is discussed. The genetic manipulation and transcriptional regulation of the pathways are also outlined.

Biosynthesis and Metabolic Fate of Phenylalanine in Conifers.

Science.gov (United States)

Pascual, María B; El-Azaz, Jorge; de la Torre, Fernando N; Cañas, Rafael A; Avila, Concepción; Cánovas, Francisco M

2016-01-01

The amino acid phenylalanine (Phe) is a critical metabolic node that plays an essential role in the interconnection between primary and secondary metabolism in plants. Phe is used as a protein building block but it is also as a precursor for numerous plant compounds that are crucial for plant reproduction, growth, development, and defense against different types of stresses. The metabolism of Phe plays a central role in the channeling of carbon from photosynthesis to the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids. The study of this metabolic pathway is particularly relevant in trees, which divert large amounts of carbon into the biosynthesis of Phe-derived compounds, particularly lignin, an important constituent of wood. The trunks of trees are metabolic sinks that consume a considerable percentage of carbon and energy from photosynthesis, and carbon is finally immobilized in wood. This paper reviews recent advances in the biosynthesis and metabolic utilization of Phe in conifer trees. Two alternative routes have been identified: the ancient phenylpyruvate pathway that is present in microorganisms, and the arogenate pathway that possibly evolved later during plant evolution. Additionally, an efficient nitrogen recycling mechanism is required to maintain sustained growth during xylem formation. The relevance of phenylalanine metabolic pathways in wood formation, the biotic interactions, and ultraviolet protection is discussed. The genetic manipulation and transcriptional regulation of the pathways are also outlined.

kpath: integration of metabolic pathway linked data.

Science.gov (United States)

Navas-Delgado, Ismael; García-Godoy, María Jesús; López-Camacho, Esteban; Rybinski, Maciej; Reyes-Palomares, Armando; Medina, Miguel Ángel; Aldana-Montes, José F

2015-01-01

In the last few years, the Life Sciences domain has experienced a rapid growth in the amount of available biological databases. The heterogeneity of these databases makes data integration a challenging issue. Some integration challenges are locating resources, relationships, data formats, synonyms or ambiguity. The Linked Data approach partially solves the heterogeneity problems by introducing a uniform data representation model. Linked Data refers to a set of best practices for publishing and connecting structured data on the Web. This article introduces kpath, a database that integrates information related to metabolic pathways. kpath also provides a navigational interface that enables not only the browsing, but also the deep use of the integrated data to build metabolic networks based on existing disperse knowledge. This user interface has been used to showcase relationships that can be inferred from the information available in several public databases. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

Exploring metabolic pathway disruption in the subchronic phencyclidine model of schizophrenia with the Generalized Singular Value Decomposition

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Morris Brian J

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The quantification of experimentally-induced alterations in biological pathways remains a major challenge in systems biology. One example of this is the quantitative characterization of alterations in defined, established metabolic pathways from complex metabolomic data. At present, the disruption of a given metabolic pathway is inferred from metabolomic data by observing an alteration in the level of one or more individual metabolites present within that pathway. Not only is this approach open to subjectivity, as metabolites participate in multiple pathways, but it also ignores useful information available through the pairwise correlations between metabolites. This extra information may be incorporated using a higher-level approach that looks for alterations between a pair of correlation networks. In this way experimentally-induced alterations in metabolic pathways can be quantitatively defined by characterizing group differences in metabolite clustering. Taking this approach increases the objectivity of interpreting alterations in metabolic pathways from metabolomic data. Results We present and justify a new technique for comparing pairs of networks--in our case these networks are based on the same set of nodes and there are two distinct types of weighted edges. The algorithm is based on the Generalized Singular Value Decomposition (GSVD, which may be regarded as an extension of Principle Components Analysis to the case of two data sets. We show how the GSVD can be interpreted as a technique for reordering the two networks in order to reveal clusters that are exclusive to only one. Here we apply this algorithm to a new set of metabolomic data from the prefrontal cortex (PFC of a translational model relevant to schizophrenia, rats treated subchronically with the N-methyl-D-Aspartic acid (NMDA receptor antagonist phencyclidine (PCP. This provides us with a means to quantify which predefined metabolic pathways (Kyoto

Metabolic analysis of the soil microbe Dechloromonas aromatica str. RCB: indications of a surprisingly complex life-style and cryptic anaerobic pathways for aromatic degradation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Salinero, Kennan Kellaris; Keller, Keith; Feil, William S.; Feil, Helene; Trong, Stephan; Di Bartolo, Genevieve; Lapidus, Alla

2008-11-17

Initial interest in Dechloromonas aromatica strain RCB arose from its ability to anaerobically degrade benzene. It is also able to reduce perchlorate and oxidize chlorobenzoate, toluene, and xylene, creating interest in using this organism for bioremediation. Little physiological data has been published for this microbe. It is considered to be a free-living organism. The a priori prediction that the D. aromatica genome would contain previously characterized 'central' enzymes involved in anaerobic aromatic degradation proved to be false, suggesting the presence of novel anaerobic aromatic degradation pathways in this species. These missing pathways include the benzyl succinyl synthase (bssABC) genes (responsible for formate addition to toluene) and the central benzoylCoA pathway for monoaromatics. In depth analyses using existing TIGRfam, COG, and InterPro models, and the creation of de novo HMM models, indicate a highly complex lifestyle with a large number of environmental sensors and signaling pathways, including a relatively large number of GGDEF domain signal receptors and multiple quorum sensors. A number of proteins indicate interactions with an as yet unknown host, as indicated by the presence of predicted cell host remodeling enzymes, effector enzymes, hemolysin-like proteins, adhesins, NO reductase, and both type III and type VI secretory complexes. Evidence of biofilm formation including a proposed exopolysaccharide complex with the somewhat rare exosortase (epsH), is also present. Annotation described in this paper also reveals evidence for several metabolic pathways that have yet to be observed experimentally, including a sulphur oxidation (soxFCDYZAXB) gene cluster, Calvin cycle enzymes, and nitrogen fixation (including RubisCo, ribulose-phosphate 3-epimerase, and nif gene families, respectively). Analysis of the D. aromatica genome indicates there is much to be learned regarding the metabolic capabilities, and life-style, for this microbial

Metabolic analysis of the soil microbe Dechloromonas aromatica str. RCB: indications of a surprisingly complex life-style and cryptic anaerobic pathways for aromatic degradation

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Feil Helene

2009-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Initial interest in Dechloromonas aromatica strain RCB arose from its ability to anaerobically degrade benzene. It is also able to reduce perchlorate and oxidize chlorobenzoate, toluene, and xylene, creating interest in using this organism for bioremediation. Little physiological data has been published for this microbe. It is considered to be a free-living organism. Results The a priori prediction that the D. aromatica genome would contain previously characterized "central" enzymes to support anaerobic aromatic degradation of benzene proved to be false, suggesting the presence of novel anaerobic aromatic degradation pathways in this species. These missing pathways include the benzylsuccinate synthase (bssABC genes (responsible for fumarate addition to toluene and the central benzoyl-CoA pathway for monoaromatics. In depth analyses using existing TIGRfam, COG, and InterPro models, and the creation of de novo HMM models, indicate a highly complex lifestyle with a large number of environmental sensors and signaling pathways, including a relatively large number of GGDEF domain signal receptors and multiple quorum sensors. A number of proteins indicate interactions with an as yet unknown host, as indicated by the presence of predicted cell host remodeling enzymes, effector enzymes, hemolysin-like proteins, adhesins, NO reductase, and both type III and type VI secretory complexes. Evidence of biofilm formation including a proposed exopolysaccharide complex and exosortase (epsH are also present. Annotation described in this paper also reveals evidence for several metabolic pathways that have yet to be observed experimentally, including a sulphur oxidation (soxFCDYZAXB gene cluster, Calvin cycle enzymes, and proteins involved in nitrogen fixation in other species (including RubisCo, ribulose-phosphate 3-epimerase, and nif gene families, respectively. Conclusion Analysis of the D. aromatica genome indicates there is much to be

Reconstructing phylogeny by aligning multiple metabolic pathways using functional module mapping

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huang, Yiran; Zhong, Cheng; Lin, H.X.; Wang, Jianyi; Peng, Yuzhong

2018-01-01

Comparison of metabolic pathways provides a systematic way for understanding the evolutionary and phylogenetic relationships in systems biology. Although a number of phylogenetic methods have been developed, few efforts have been made to provide a unified phylogenetic framework that sufficiently

Integrating the protein and metabolic engineering toolkits for next-generation chemical biosynthesis.

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Pirie, Christopher M; De Mey, Marjan; Jones Prather, Kristala L; Ajikumar, Parayil Kumaran

2013-04-19

Through microbial engineering, biosynthesis has the potential to produce thousands of chemicals used in everyday life. Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology are fields driven by the manipulation of genes, genetic regulatory systems, and enzymatic pathways for developing highly productive microbial strains. Fundamentally, it is the biochemical characteristics of the enzymes themselves that dictate flux through a biosynthetic pathway toward the product of interest. As metabolic engineers target sophisticated secondary metabolites, there has been little recognition of the reduced catalytic activity and increased substrate/product promiscuity of the corresponding enzymes compared to those of central metabolism. Thus, fine-tuning these enzymatic characteristics through protein engineering is paramount for developing high-productivity microbial strains for secondary metabolites. Here, we describe the importance of protein engineering for advancing metabolic engineering of secondary metabolism pathways. This pathway integrated enzyme optimization can enhance the collective toolkit of microbial engineering to shape the future of chemical manufacturing.

Malaria Parasite Metabolic Pathways (MPMP) Upgraded with Targeted Chemical Compounds

KAUST Repository

Ginsburg, Hagai

2015-10-31

Malaria Parasite Metabolic Pathways (MPMP) is the website for the functional genomics of intraerythrocytic Plasmodium falciparum. All the published information about targeted chemical compounds has now been added. Users can find the drug target and publication details linked to a drug database for further information about the medicinal properties of each compound.

Malaria Parasite Metabolic Pathways (MPMP) Upgraded with Targeted Chemical Compounds

KAUST Repository

Ginsburg, Hagai; Abdel-Haleem, Alyaa M.

2015-01-01

Malaria Parasite Metabolic Pathways (MPMP) is the website for the functional genomics of intraerythrocytic Plasmodium falciparum. All the published information about targeted chemical compounds has now been added. Users can find the drug target and publication details linked to a drug database for further information about the medicinal properties of each compound.

A Bayesian method for identifying missing enzymes in predicted metabolic pathway databases

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Karp Peter D

2004-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The PathoLogic program constructs Pathway/Genome databases by using a genome's annotation to predict the set of metabolic pathways present in an organism. PathoLogic determines the set of reactions composing those pathways from the enzymes annotated in the organism's genome. Most annotation efforts fail to assign function to 40–60% of sequences. In addition, large numbers of sequences may have non-specific annotations (e.g., thiolase family protein. Pathway holes occur when a genome appears to lack the enzymes needed to catalyze reactions in a pathway. If a protein has not been assigned a specific function during the annotation process, any reaction catalyzed by that protein will appear as a missing enzyme or pathway hole in a Pathway/Genome database. Results We have developed a method that efficiently combines homology and pathway-based evidence to identify candidates for filling pathway holes in Pathway/Genome databases. Our program not only identifies potential candidate sequences for pathway holes, but combines data from multiple, heterogeneous sources to assess the likelihood that a candidate has the required function. Our algorithm emulates the manual sequence annotation process, considering not only evidence from homology searches, but also considering evidence from genomic context (i.e., is the gene part of an operon? and functional context (e.g., are there functionally-related genes nearby in the genome? to determine the posterior belief that a candidate has the required function. The method can be applied across an entire metabolic pathway network and is generally applicable to any pathway database. The program uses a set of sequences encoding the required activity in other genomes to identify candidate proteins in the genome of interest, and then evaluates each candidate by using a simple Bayes classifier to determine the probability that the candidate has the desired function. We achieved 71% precision at a

A new course in the clinical pathways for metabolic syndrome

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kageyama, Shoko; Wada, Yumi; Nakamura, Rie

2006-01-01

Metabolic syndrome is consisted with multiple risk factors such as diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension based on visceral fat accumulation, for the development of arteriosclerosis. We present, here, a clinical pathway for education of patients with metabolic syndrome. The program contains an adequate explanation of the high risk for arteriosclerosis to the patients, the measurement of visceral fat content by computed tomography, and several clinical examinations for the evaluation of arteriosclerotic lesions. We have presented this program on the ward of diabetes center in our hospital for patients diagnosed as having metabolic syndrome. Because the focus of education is to clarify understanding of the harmful effects of visceral fat and the benefits of its reduction, it might be a valuable tool to motivate and empower the patient and improve the patient's lifestyle. (author)

A new course in the clinical pathways for metabolic syndrome

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kageyama, Shoko; Wada, Yumi; Nakamura, Rie [Sumitomo Hospital, Osaka, Osaka (Japan)

2006-07-15

Metabolic syndrome is consisted with multiple risk factors such as diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension based on visceral fat accumulation, for the development of arteriosclerosis. We present, here, a clinical pathway for education of patients with metabolic syndrome. The program contains an adequate explanation of the high risk for arteriosclerosis to the patients, the measurement of visceral fat content by computed tomography, and several clinical examinations for the evaluation of arteriosclerotic lesions. We have presented this program on the ward of diabetes center in our hospital for patients diagnosed as having metabolic syndrome. Because the focus of education is to clarify understanding of the harmful effects of visceral fat and the benefits of its reduction, it might be a valuable tool to motivate and empower the patient and improve the patient's lifestyle. (author)

Central nervous insulin resistance: a promising target in the treatment of metabolic and cognitive disorders?

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Hallschmid, M; Schultes, B

2009-11-01

Research on functions and signalling pathways of insulin has traditionally focused on peripheral tissues such as muscle, fat and liver, while the brain was commonly believed to be insensitive to the effects of this hormone secreted by pancreatic beta cells. However, since the discovery some 30 years ago that insulin receptors are ubiquitously found in the central nervous system, an ever-growing research effort has conclusively shown that circulating insulin accesses the brain, which itself does not synthesise insulin, and exerts pivotal functions in central nervous networks. As an adiposity signal reflecting the amount of body fat, insulin provides direct negative feedback to hypothalamic nuclei that control whole-body energy and glucose homeostasis. Moreover, insulin affects distinct cognitive processes, e.g. by triggering the formation of psychological memory contents. Accordingly, metabolic and cognitive disorders such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and Alzheimer's disease are associated with resistance of central nervous structures to the effects of insulin, which may derive from genetic polymorphisms as well as from long-term exposure to excess amounts of circulating insulin due to peripheral insulin resistance. Thus, overcoming central nervous insulin resistance, e.g. by pharmacological interventions, appears to be an attractive strategy in the treatment and prevention of these disorders. Enhancement of central nervous insulin signalling by administration of intranasal insulin, insulin analogues and insulin sensitisers in basic research approaches has yielded encouraging results that bode well for the successful translation of these effects into future clinical practice.

Genome wide expression analysis in HPV16 Cervical Cancer: identification of altered metabolic pathways

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Salcedo Mauricio

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Cervical carcinoma (CC is a leading cause of death among women worldwide. Human papilloma virus (HPV is a major etiological factor in CC and HPV 16 is the more frequent viral type present. Our aim was to characterize metabolic pathways altered in HPV 16 tumor samples by means of transcriptome wide analysis and bioinformatics tools for visualizing expression data in the context of KEGG biological pathways. Results We found 2,067 genes significantly up or down-modulated (at least 2-fold in tumor clinical samples compared to normal tissues, representing ~3.7% of analyzed genes. Cervical carcinoma was associated with an important up-regulation of Wnt signaling pathway, which was validated by in situ hybridization in clinical samples. Other up-regulated pathways were those of calcium signaling and MAPK signaling, as well as cell cycle-related genes. There was down-regulation of focal adhesion, TGF-β signaling, among other metabolic pathways. Conclusion This analysis of HPV 16 tumors transcriptome could be useful for the identification of genes and molecular pathways involved in the pathogenesis of cervical carcinoma. Understanding the possible role of these proteins in the pathogenesis of CC deserves further studies.

Postural control and central motor pathway involvement in type 2 ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Mona Mokhtar El Bardawil

2013-04-18

Apr 18, 2013 ... Postural control and central motor pathway involvement in type 2 .... with a high power 90 mm circular coil, capable of generating. 2 T maximum field ..... advanced glycation end products, oxidative damage and microvascular ...

Computational and experimental analysis of redundancy in the central metabolism of Geobacter sulfurreducens.

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Daniel Segura

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Previous model-based analysis of the metabolic network of Geobacter sulfurreducens suggested the existence of several redundant pathways. Here, we identified eight sets of redundant pathways that included redundancy for the assimilation of acetate, and for the conversion of pyruvate into acetyl-CoA. These equivalent pathways and two other sub-optimal pathways were studied using 5 single-gene deletion mutants in those pathways for the evaluation of the predictive capacity of the model. The growth phenotypes of these mutants were studied under 12 different conditions of electron donor and acceptor availability. The comparison of the model predictions with the resulting experimental phenotypes indicated that pyruvate ferredoxin oxidoreductase is the only activity able to convert pyruvate into acetyl-CoA. However, the results and the modeling showed that the two acetate activation pathways present are not only active, but needed due to the additional role of the acetyl-CoA transferase in the TCA cycle, probably reflecting the adaptation of these bacteria to acetate utilization. In other cases, the data reconciliation suggested additional capacity constraints that were confirmed with biochemical assays. The results demonstrate the need to experimentally verify the activity of key enzymes when developing in silico models of microbial physiology based on sequence-based reconstruction of metabolic networks.

Highly proliferative primitive fetal liver hematopoietic stem cells are fueled by oxidative metabolic pathways

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Javed K. Manesia

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs in the fetal liver (FL unlike adult bone marrow (BM proliferate extensively, posing different metabolic demands. However, metabolic pathways responsible for the production of energy and cellular building blocks in FL HSCs have not been described. Here, we report that FL HSCs use oxygen dependent energy generating pathways significantly more than their BM counterparts. RNA-Seq analysis of E14.5 FL versus BM derived HSCs identified increased expression levels of genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos and the citric acid cycle (TCA. We demonstrated that FL HSCs contain more mitochondria than BM HSCs, which resulted in increased levels of oxygen consumption and reactive oxygen species (ROS production. Higher levels of DNA repair and antioxidant pathway gene expression may prevent ROS-mediated (genotoxicity in FL HSCs. Thus, we here for the first time highlight the underestimated importance of oxygen dependent pathways for generating energy and building blocks in FL HSCs.

Shigella reroutes host cell central metabolism to obtain high-flux nutrient supply for vigorous intracellular growth.

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Kentner, David; Martano, Giuseppe; Callon, Morgane; Chiquet, Petra; Brodmann, Maj; Burton, Olga; Wahlander, Asa; Nanni, Paolo; Delmotte, Nathanaël; Grossmann, Jonas; Limenitakis, Julien; Schlapbach, Ralph; Kiefer, Patrick; Vorholt, Julia A; Hiller, Sebastian; Bumann, Dirk

2014-07-08

Shigella flexneri proliferate in infected human epithelial cells at exceptionally high rates. This vigorous growth has important consequences for rapid progression to life-threatening bloody diarrhea, but the underlying metabolic mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we used metabolomics, proteomics, and genetic experiments to determine host and Shigella metabolism during infection in a cell culture model. The data suggest that infected host cells maintain largely normal fluxes through glycolytic pathways, but the entire output of these pathways is captured by Shigella, most likely in the form of pyruvate. This striking strategy provides Shigella with an abundant favorable energy source, while preserving host cell ATP generation, energy charge maintenance, and survival, despite ongoing vigorous exploitation. Shigella uses a simple three-step pathway to metabolize pyruvate at high rates with acetate as an excreted waste product. The crucial role of this pathway for Shigella intracellular growth suggests targets for antimicrobial chemotherapy of this devastating disease.

A workflow for mathematical modeling of subcellular metabolic pathways in leaf metabolism of Arabidopsis thaliana

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Thomas eNägele

2013-12-01

Full Text Available During the last decade genome sequencing has experienced a rapid technological development resulting in numerous sequencing projects and applications in life science. In plant molecular biology, the availability of sequence data on whole genomes has enabled the reconstruction of metabolic networks. Enzymatic reactions are predicted by the sequence information. Pathways arise due to the participation of chemical compounds as substrates and products in these reactions. Although several of these comprehensive networks have been reconstructed for the genetic model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the integration of experimental data is still challenging. Particularly the analysis of subcellular organization of plant cells limits the understanding of regulatory instances in these metabolic networks in vivo. In this study, we develop an approach for the functional integration of experimental high-throughput data into such large-scale networks. We present a subcellular metabolic network model comprising 524 metabolic intermediates and 548 metabolic interactions derived from a total of 2769 reactions. We demonstrate how to link the metabolite covariance matrix of different Arabidopsis thaliana accessions with the subcellular metabolic network model for the inverse calculation of the biochemical Jacobian, finally resulting in the calculation of a matrix which satisfies a Lyaponov equation involving a covariance matrix. In this way, differential strategies of metabolite compartmentation and involved reactions were identified in the accessions when exposed to low temperature.

UV light selectively coinduces supply pathways from primary metabolism and flavonoid secondary product formation in parsley

Science.gov (United States)

Logemann, Elke; Tavernaro, Annette; Schulz, Wolfgang; Somssich, Imre E.; Hahlbrock, Klaus

2000-01-01

The UV light-induced synthesis of UV-protective flavonoids diverts substantial amounts of substrates from primary metabolism into secondary product formation and thus causes major perturbations of the cellular homeostasis. Results from this study show that the mRNAs encoding representative enzymes from various supply pathways are coinduced in UV-irradiated parsley cells (Petroselinum crispum) with two mRNAs of flavonoid glycoside biosynthesis, encoding phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and chalcone synthase. Strong induction was observed for mRNAs encoding glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (carbohydrate metabolism, providing substrates for the shikimate pathway), 3-deoxyarabinoheptulosonate 7-phosphate synthase (shikimate pathway, yielding phenylalanine), and acyl-CoA oxidase (fatty acid degradation, yielding acetyl-CoA), and moderate induction for an mRNA encoding S-adenosyl-homocysteine hydrolase (activated methyl cycle, yielding S-adenosyl-methionine for B-ring methylation). Ten arbitrarily selected mRNAs representing various unrelated metabolic activities remained unaffected. Comparative analysis of acyl-CoA oxidase and chalcone synthase with respect to mRNA expression modes and gene promoter structure and function revealed close similarities. These results indicate a fine-tuned regulatory network integrating those functionally related pathways of primary and secondary metabolism that are specifically required for protective adaptation to UV irradiation. Although the response of parsley cells to UV light is considerably broader than previously assumed, it contrasts greatly with the extensive metabolic reprogramming observed previously in elicitor-treated or fungus-infected cells. PMID:10677554

Analysis of Aspergillus nidulans metabolism at the genome-scale

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

David, Helga; Ozcelik, İlknur Ş; Hofmann, Gerald

2008-01-01

of relevant secondary metabolites, was reconstructed based on detailed metabolic reconstructions available for A. niger and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and information on the genetics, biochemistry and physiology of A. nidulans. Thereby, it was possible to identify metabolic functions without a gene associated...... a function. Results: In this work, we have manually assigned functions to 472 orphan genes in the metabolism of A. nidulans, by using a pathway-driven approach and by employing comparative genomics tools based on sequence similarity. The central metabolism of A. nidulans, as well as biosynthetic pathways......, in an objective and systematic manner. The functional assignments served as a basis to develop a mathematical model, linking 666 genes (both previously and newly annotated) to metabolic roles. The model was used to simulate metabolic behavior and additionally to integrate, analyze and interpret large-scale gene...

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein to detect metabolic syndrome in a centrally obese population: a cross-sectional analysis

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den Engelsen Corine

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background People with central obesity have an increased risk for developing the metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, a substantial part of obese individuals have no other cardiovascular risk factors, besides their obesity. High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP, a marker of systemic inflammation and a predictor of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, is associated with the metabolic syndrome and its separate components. We evaluated the use of hs-CRP to discriminate between centrally obese people with and without the metabolic syndrome. Methods 1165 people with central obesity but without any previous diagnosis of hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes or cardiovascular disease, aged 20-70 years, underwent a physical examination and laboratory assays to determine the presence of the metabolic syndrome (NCEP ATP III criteria. Multivariable linear regression analyses were performed to assess which metabolic syndrome components were independently associated with hs-CRP. A ROC curve was drawn and the area under the curve was calculated to evaluate whether hs-CRP was capable to predict the presence of the metabolic syndrome. Results Median hs-CRP levels were significantly higher in individuals with central obesity with the metabolic syndrome (n = 417; 35.8% compared to individuals with central obesity without the metabolic syndrome (2.2 mg/L (IQR 1.2-4.0 versus 1.7 mg/L (IQR 1.0-3.4; p Conclusions Hs-CRP has limited capacity to predict the presence of the metabolic syndrome in a population with central obesity.

Metabolic response of Candida albicans to phenylethyl alcohol under hyphae-inducing conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Ting-Li; Tumanov, Sergey; Cannon, Richard D; Villas-Boas, Silas G

2013-01-01

Phenylethyl alcohol was one of the first quorum sensing molecules (QSMs) identified in C. albicans. This extracellular signalling molecule inhibits the hyphal formation of C. albicans at high cell density. Little is known, however, about the underlying mechanisms by which this QSM regulates the morphological switches of C. albicans. Therefore, we have applied metabolomics and isotope labelling experiments to investigate the metabolic changes that occur in C. albicans in response to phenylethyl alcohol under defined hyphae-inducing conditions. Our results showed a global upregulation of central carbon metabolism when hyphal development was suppressed by phenylethyl alcohol. By comparing the metabolic changes in response to phenylethyl alcohol to our previous metabolomic studies, we were able to short-list 7 metabolic pathways from central carbon metabolism that appear to be associated with C. albicans morphogenesis. Furthermore, isotope-labelling data showed that phenylethyl alcohol is indeed taken up and catabolised by yeast cells. Isotope-labelled carbon atoms were found in the majority of amino acids as well as in lactate and glyoxylate. However, isotope-labelled carbon atoms from phenylethyl alcohol accumulated mainly in the pyridine ring of NAD(+)/NADH and NADP(-/)NADPH molecules, showing that these nucleotides were the main products of phenylethyl alcohol catabolism. Interestingly, two metabolic pathways where these nucleotides play an important role, nitrogen metabolism and nicotinate/nicotinamide metabolism, were also short-listed through our previous metabolomics works as metabolic pathways likely to be closely associated with C. albicans morphogenesis.

Autophagy in the light of sphingolipid metabolism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Harvald, Eva Bang; Olsen, Anne Sofie Braun; Færgeman, Nils J.

2015-01-01

Maintenance of cellular homeostasis requires tight and coordinated control of numerous metabolic pathways, which are governed by interconnected networks of signaling pathways and energy-sensing regulators. Autophagy, a lysosomal degradation pathway by which the cell self-digests its own components......, has over the past decade been recognized as an essential part of metabolism. Autophagy not only rids the cell of excessive or damaged organelles, misfolded proteins, and invading microorganisms, it also provides nutrients to maintain crucial cellular functions. Besides serving as essential structural...... moieties of biomembranes, lipids including sphingolipids are increasingly being recognized as central regulators of a number of important cellular processes, including autophagy. In the present review we describe how sphingolipids, with special emphasis on ceramides and sphingosine-1-phosphate, can act...

Dynamic Labeling Reveals Temporal Changes in Carbon Re-Allocation within the Central Metabolism of Developing Apple Fruit

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Wasiye F. Beshir

2017-10-01

Full Text Available In recent years, the application of isotopically labeled substrates has received extensive attention in plant physiology. Measuring the propagation of the label through metabolic networks may provide information on carbon allocation in sink fruit during fruit development. In this research, gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry based metabolite profiling was used to characterize the changing metabolic pool sizes in developing apple fruit at five growth stages (30, 58, 93, 121, and 149 days after full bloom using 13C-isotope feeding experiments on hypanthium tissue discs. Following the feeding of [U-13C]glucose, the 13C-label was incorporated into the various metabolites to different degrees depending on incubation time, metabolic pathway activity, and growth stage. Evidence is presented that early in fruit development the utilization of the imported sugars was faster than in later developmental stages, likely to supply the energy and carbon skeletons required for cell division and fruit growth. The declined 13C-incorporation into various metabolites during growth and maturation can be associated with the reduced metabolic activity, as mirrored by the respiratory rate. Moreover, the concentration of fructose and sucrose increased during fruit development, whereas concentrations of most amino and organic acids and polyphenols declined. In general, this study showed that the imported compounds play a central role not only in carbohydrate metabolism, but also in the biosynthesis of amino acid and related protein synthesis and secondary metabolites at the early stage of fruit development.

Mass spectrometry-based metabolomics: applications to biomarker and metabolic pathway research.

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Zhang, Aihua; Sun, Hui; Yan, Guangli; Wang, Ping; Wang, Xijun

2016-01-01

Mass spectrometry-based metabolomics has become increasingly popular in molecular medicine. High-definition mass spectrometry (MS), coupled with pattern recognition methods, have been carried out to obtain comprehensive metabolite profiling and metabolic pathway of large biological datasets. This sets the scene for a new and powerful diagnostic approach. Analysis of the key metabolites in body fluids has become an important part of improving disease diagnosis. With technological advances in analytical techniques, the ability to measure low-molecular-weight metabolites in bio-samples provides a powerful platform for identifying metabolites that are uniquely correlated with a specific human disease. MS-based metabolomics can lead to enhanced understanding of disease mechanisms and to new diagnostic markers and has a strong potential to contribute to improving early diagnosis of diseases. This review will highlight the importance and benefit with certain characteristic examples of MS-metabolomics for identifying metabolic pathways and metabolites that accurately screen for potential diagnostic biomarkers of diseases. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A metabolic pathway for catabolizing levulinic acid in bacteria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rand, Jacqueline M.; Pisithkul, Tippapha; Clark, Ryan L.; Thiede, Joshua M.; Mehrer, Christopher R.

2017-01-01

Microorganisms can catabolize a wide range of organic compounds and therefore have the potential to perform many industrially relevant bioconversions. One barrier to realizing the potential of biorefining strategies lies in our incomplete knowledge of metabolic pathways, including those that can be used to assimilate naturally abundant or easily generated feedstocks. For instance, levulinic acid (LA) is a carbon source that is readily obtainable as a dehydration product of lignocellulosic biomass and can serve as the sole carbon source for some bacteria. Yet, the genetics and structure of LA catabolism have remained unknown. Here, we report the identification and characterization of a seven-gene operon that enables LA catabolism in Pseudomonas putida KT2440. When the pathway was reconstituted with purified proteins, we observed the formation of four acyl-CoA intermediates, including a unique 4-phosphovaleryl-CoA and the previously observed 3-hydroxyvaleryl-CoA product. Using adaptive evolution, we obtained a mutant of Escherichia coli LS5218 with functional deletions of fadE and atoC that was capable of robust growth on LA when it expressed the five enzymes from the P. putida operon. Here, this discovery will enable more efficient use of biomass hydrolysates and metabolic engineering to develop bioconversions using LA as a feedstock.

Metabolic Syndrome in a Rural Nigerian Community: Is Central ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Alasia Datonye

ABSTRACT. Background. Metabolic syndrome (MS) is primarily the consequence of excess central adiposity but can also result from low grade systemic inflammation inducing insulin resistance. There is a global increase in the prevalence of MS; it is on this background that evaluation of the prevalence of MS in a poor rural ...

Evolution of metabolic network organization

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Bonchev Danail

2010-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Comparison of metabolic networks across species is a key to understanding how evolutionary pressures shape these networks. By selecting taxa representative of different lineages or lifestyles and using a comprehensive set of descriptors of the structure and complexity of their metabolic networks, one can highlight both qualitative and quantitative differences in the metabolic organization of species subject to distinct evolutionary paths or environmental constraints. Results We used a novel representation of metabolic networks, termed network of interacting pathways or NIP, to focus on the modular, high-level organization of the metabolic capabilities of the cell. Using machine learning techniques we identified the most relevant aspects of cellular organization that change under evolutionary pressures. We considered the transitions from prokarya to eukarya (with a focus on the transitions among the archaea, bacteria and eukarya, from unicellular to multicellular eukarya, from free living to host-associated bacteria, from anaerobic to aerobic, as well as the acquisition of cell motility or growth in an environment of various levels of salinity or temperature. Intuitively, we expect organisms with more complex lifestyles to have more complex and robust metabolic networks. Here we demonstrate for the first time that such organisms are not only characterized by larger, denser networks of metabolic pathways but also have more efficiently organized cross communications, as revealed by subtle changes in network topology. These changes are unevenly distributed among metabolic pathways, with specific categories of pathways being promoted to more central locations as an answer to environmental constraints. Conclusions Combining methods from graph theory and machine learning, we have shown here that evolutionary pressures not only affects gene and protein sequences, but also specific details of the complex wiring of functional modules

The unique features of glycolytic pathways in Archaea.

OpenAIRE

Verhees, Corné H; Kengen, Servé W M; Tuininga, Judith E; Schut, Gerrit J; Adams, Michael W W; De Vos, Willem M; Van Der Oost, John

2003-01-01

An early divergence in evolution has resulted in two prokaryotic domains, the Bacteria and the Archaea. Whereas the central metabolic routes of bacteria and eukaryotes are generally well-conserved, variant pathways have developed in Archaea involving several novel enzymes with a distinct control. A spectacular example of convergent evolution concerns the glucose-degrading pathways of saccharolytic archaea. The identification, characterization and comparison of the glycolytic enzymes of a vari...

Putative drug and vaccine target protein identification using comparative genomic analysis of KEGG annotated metabolic pathways of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae.

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Damte, Dereje; Suh, Joo-Won; Lee, Seung-Jin; Yohannes, Sileshi Belew; Hossain, Md Akil; Park, Seung-Chun

2013-07-01

In the present study, a computational comparative and subtractive genomic/proteomic analysis aimed at the identification of putative therapeutic target and vaccine candidate proteins from Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) annotated metabolic pathways of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae was performed for drug design and vaccine production pipelines against M.hyopneumoniae. The employed comparative genomic and metabolic pathway analysis with a predefined computational systemic workflow extracted a total of 41 annotated metabolic pathways from KEGG among which five were unique to M. hyopneumoniae. A total of 234 proteins were identified to be involved in these metabolic pathways. Although 125 non homologous and predicted essential proteins were found from the total that could serve as potential drug targets and vaccine candidates, additional prioritizing parameters characterize 21 proteins as vaccine candidate while druggability of each of the identified proteins evaluated by the DrugBank database prioritized 42 proteins suitable for drug targets. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Malaria Parasite Metabolic Pathways (MPMP) Upgraded with Targeted Chemical Compounds.

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Ginsburg, Hagai; Abdel-Haleem, Alyaa M

2016-01-01

Malaria Parasite Metabolic Pathways (MPMP) is the website for the functional genomics of intraerythrocytic Plasmodium falciparum. All the published information about targeted chemical compounds has now been added. Users can find the drug target and publication details linked to a drug database for further information about the medicinal properties of each compound. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Identification of altered metabolic pathways in plasma and CSF in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease using metabolomics.

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Eugenia Trushina

Full Text Available Alzheimer's Disease (AD currently affects more than 5 million Americans, with numbers expected to grow dramatically as the population ages. The pathophysiological changes in AD patients begin decades before the onset of dementia, highlighting the urgent need for the development of early diagnostic methods. Compelling data demonstrate that increased levels of amyloid-beta compromise multiple cellular pathways; thus, the investigation of changes in various cellular networks is essential to advance our understanding of early disease mechanisms and to identify novel therapeutic targets. We applied a liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry-based non-targeted metabolomics approach to determine global metabolic changes in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF from the same individuals with different AD severity. Metabolic profiling detected a total of significantly altered 342 plasma and 351 CSF metabolites, of which 22% were identified. Based on the changes of >150 metabolites, we found 23 altered canonical pathways in plasma and 20 in CSF in mild cognitive impairment (MCI vs. cognitively normal (CN individuals with a false discovery rate <0.05. The number of affected pathways increased with disease severity in both fluids. Lysine metabolism in plasma and the Krebs cycle in CSF were significantly affected in MCI vs. CN. Cholesterol and sphingolipids transport was altered in both CSF and plasma of AD vs. CN. Other 30 canonical pathways significantly disturbed in MCI and AD patients included energy metabolism, Krebs cycle, mitochondrial function, neurotransmitter and amino acid metabolism, and lipid biosynthesis. Pathways in plasma that discriminated between all groups included polyamine, lysine, tryptophan metabolism, and aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis; and in CSF involved cortisone and prostaglandin 2 biosynthesis and metabolism. Our data suggest metabolomics could advance our understanding of the early disease mechanisms shared in progression from CN to

Hydrogen production and metabolic flux analysis of metabolically engineered Escherichia coli strains

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Seohyoung; Seol, Eunhee; Park, Sunghoon [Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735 (Korea); Oh, You-Kwan [Bioenergy Research Center, Korea Institute of Energy Research, Daejeon 305-543 (Korea); Wang, G.Y. [Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)

2009-09-15

Escherichia coli can produce H{sub 2} from glucose via formate hydrogen lyase (FHL). In order to improve the H{sub 2} production rate and yield, metabolically engineered E. coli strains, which included pathway alterations in their H{sub 2} production and central carbon metabolism, were developed and characterized by batch experiments and metabolic flux analysis. Deletion of hycA, a negative regulator for FHL, resulted in twofold increase of FHL activity. Deletion of two uptake hydrogenases (1 (hya) and hydrogenase 2 (hyb)) increased H{sub 2} production yield from 1.20 mol/mol glucose to 1.48 mol/mol glucose. Deletion of lactate dehydrogenase (ldhA) and fumarate reductase (frdAB) further improved the H{sub 2} yield; 1.80 mol/mol glucose under high H{sub 2} pressure or 2.11 mol/mol glucose under reduced H{sub 2} pressure. Several batch experiments at varying concentrations of glucose (2.5-10 g/L) and yeast extract (0.3 or 3.0 g/L) were conducted for the strain containing all these genetic alternations, and their carbon and energy balances were analyzed. The metabolic flux analysis revealed that deletion of ldhA and frdAB directed most of the carbons from glucose to the glycolytic pathway leading to H{sub 2} production by FHL, not to the pentose phosphate pathway. (author)

Dissection of Biological Property of Chinese Acupuncture Point Zusanli Based on Long-Term Treatment via Modulating Multiple Metabolic Pathways

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Guangli Yan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Acupuncture has a history of over 3000 years and is a traditional Chinese medical therapy that uses hair-thin metal needles to puncture the skin at specific points on the body to promote wellbeing, while its molecular mechanism and ideal biological pathways are still not clear. High-throughput metabolomics is the global assessment of endogenous metabolites within a biologic system and can potentially provide a more accurate snap shot of the actual physiological state. We hypothesize that acupuncture-treated human would produce unique characterization of metabolic phenotypes. In this study, UPLC/ESI-HDMS coupled with pattern recognition methods and system analysis were carried out to investigate the mechanism and metabolite biomarkers for acupuncture treatment at “Zusanli” acupoint (ST-36 as a case study. The top 5 canonical pathways including alpha-linolenic acid metabolism, d-glutamine and d-glutamate metabolism, citrate cycle, alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism, and vitamin B6 metabolism pathways were acutely perturbed, and 53 differential metabolites were identified by chemical profiling and may be useful to clarify the physiological basis and mechanism of ST-36. More importantly, network construction has led to the integration of metabolites associated with the multiple perturbation pathways. Urine metabolic profiling might be a promising method to investigate the molecular mechanism of acupuncture.

Dissection of Biological Property of Chinese Acupuncture Point Zusanli Based on Long-Term Treatment via Modulating Multiple Metabolic Pathways.

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Yan, Guangli; Zhang, Aihua; Sun, Hui; Cheng, Weiping; Meng, Xiangcai; Liu, Li; Zhang, Yingzhi; Xie, Ning; Wang, Xijun

2013-01-01

Acupuncture has a history of over 3000 years and is a traditional Chinese medical therapy that uses hair-thin metal needles to puncture the skin at specific points on the body to promote wellbeing, while its molecular mechanism and ideal biological pathways are still not clear. High-throughput metabolomics is the global assessment of endogenous metabolites within a biologic system and can potentially provide a more accurate snap shot of the actual physiological state. We hypothesize that acupuncture-treated human would produce unique characterization of metabolic phenotypes. In this study, UPLC/ESI-HDMS coupled with pattern recognition methods and system analysis were carried out to investigate the mechanism and metabolite biomarkers for acupuncture treatment at "Zusanli" acupoint (ST-36) as a case study. The top 5 canonical pathways including alpha-linolenic acid metabolism, d-glutamine and d-glutamate metabolism, citrate cycle, alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism, and vitamin B6 metabolism pathways were acutely perturbed, and 53 differential metabolites were identified by chemical profiling and may be useful to clarify the physiological basis and mechanism of ST-36. More importantly, network construction has led to the integration of metabolites associated with the multiple perturbation pathways. Urine metabolic profiling might be a promising method to investigate the molecular mechanism of acupuncture.

Study on the regulatory mechanism of the lipid metabolism pathways during chicken male germ cell differentiation based on RNA-seq.

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Zuo, Qisheng; Li, Dong; Zhang, Lei; Elsayed, Ahmed Kamel; Lian, Chao; Shi, Qingqing; Zhang, Zhentao; Zhu, Rui; Wang, Yinjie; Jin, Kai; Zhang, Yani; Li, Bichun

2015-01-01

Here, we explore the regulatory mechanism of lipid metabolic signaling pathways and related genes during differentiation of male germ cells in chickens, with the hope that better understanding of these pathways may improve in vitro induction. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting was used to obtain highly purified cultures of embryonic stem cells (ESCs), primitive germ cells (PGCs), and spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). The total RNA was then extracted from each type of cell. High-throughput analysis methods (RNA-seq) were used to sequence the transcriptome of these cells. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and the KEGG database were used to identify lipid metabolism pathways and related genes. Retinoic acid (RA), the end-product of the retinol metabolism pathway, induced in vitro differentiation of ESC into male germ cells. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to detect changes in the expression of the genes involved in the retinol metabolic pathways. From the results of RNA-seq and the database analyses, we concluded that there are 328 genes in 27 lipid metabolic pathways continuously involved in lipid metabolism during the differentiation of ESC into SSC in vivo, including retinol metabolism. Alcohol dehydrogenase 5 (ADH5) and aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member A1 (ALDH1A1) are involved in RA synthesis in the cell. ADH5 was specifically expressed in PGC in our experiments and aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member A1 (ALDH1A1) persistently increased throughout development. CYP26b1, a member of the cytochrome P450 superfamily, is involved in the degradation of RA. Expression of CYP26b1, in contrast, decreased throughout development. Exogenous RA in the culture medium induced differentiation of ESC to SSC-like cells. The expression patterns of ADH5, ALDH1A1, and CYP26b1 were consistent with RNA-seq results. We conclude that the retinol metabolism pathway plays an important role in the process of chicken male germ cell differentiation.

Metabolic Pathways Involved in Carbon Dioxide Enhanced Heat Tolerance in Bermudagrass

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Jingjin Yu

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Global climate changes involve elevated temperature and CO2 concentration, imposing significant impact on plant growth of various plant species. Elevated temperature exacerbates heat damages, but elevated CO2 has positive effects on promoting plant growth and heat tolerance. The objective of this study was to identify metabolic pathways affected by elevated CO2 conferring the improvement of heat tolerance in a C4 perennial grass species, bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon Pers.. Plants were planted under either ambient CO2 concentration (400 μmol⋅mol-1 or elevated CO2 concentration (800 μmol⋅mol-1 and subjected to ambient temperature (30/25°C, day/night or heat stress (45/40°C, day/night. Elevated CO2 concentration suppressed heat-induced damages and improved heat tolerance in bermudagrass. The enhanced heat tolerance under elevated CO2 was attributed to some important metabolic pathways during which proteins and metabolites were up-regulated, including light reaction (ATP synthase subunit and photosystem I reaction center subunit and carbon fixation [(glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, GAPDH, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase, phosphoglycerate kinase, sedoheptulose-1,7-bisphosphatase and sugars of photosynthesis, glycolysis (GAPDH, glucose, fructose, and galactose and TCA cycle (pyruvic acid, malic acid and malate dehydrogenase of respiration, amino acid metabolism (aspartic acid, methionine, threonine, isoleucine, lysine, valine, alanine, and isoleucine as well as the GABA shunt (GABA, glutamic acid, alanine, proline and 5-oxoproline. The up-regulation of those metabolic processes by elevated CO2 could at least partially contribute to the improvement of heat tolerance in perennial grass species.

The Neural Baroreflex Pathway in Subjects With Metabolic Syndrome

OpenAIRE

Zanoli, Luca; Empana, Jean-Philippe; Estrugo, Nicolas; Escriou, Guillaume; Ketthab, Hakim; Pruny, Jean-Francois; Castellino, Pietro; Laude, Dominique; Thomas, Frederique; Pannier, Bruno; Jouven, Xavier; Boutouyrie, Pierre; Laurent, Stephane

2016-01-01

Abstract The mechanisms that link metabolic syndrome (MetS) to increased cardiovascular risk are incompletely understood. We examined whether MetS is associated with the neural baroreflex pathway (NBP) and whether any such associations are independent of blood pressure values. This study involved the cross-sectional analysis of data on 2835 subjects aged 50 to 75 years from the Paris Prospective Study 3. The prevalence of MetS was defined according to the American Heart Association/National H...

Comprehensive evaluation of one-carbon metabolism pathway gene variants and renal cell cancer risk.

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Todd M Gibson

Full Text Available Folate and one-carbon metabolism are linked to cancer risk through their integral role in DNA synthesis and methylation. Variation in one-carbon metabolism genes, particularly MTHFR, has been associated with risk of a number of cancers in epidemiologic studies, but little is known regarding renal cancer.Tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs selected to produce high genomic coverage of 13 gene regions of one-carbon metabolism (ALDH1L1, BHMT, CBS, FOLR1, MTHFR, MTR, MTRR, SHMT1, SLC19A1, TYMS and the closely associated glutathione synthesis pathway (CTH, GGH, GSS were genotyped for 777 renal cell carcinoma (RCC cases and 1,035 controls in the Central and Eastern European Renal Cancer case-control study. Associations of individual SNPs (n = 163 with RCC risk were calculated using unconditional logistic regression adjusted for age, sex and study center. Minimum p-value permutation (Min-P tests were used to identify gene regions associated with risk, and haplotypes were evaluated within these genes.The strongest associations with RCC risk were observed for SLC19A1 (P(min-P = 0.03 and MTHFR (P(min-P = 0.13. A haplotype consisting of four SNPs in SLC19A1 (rs12483553, rs2838950, rs2838951, and rs17004785 was associated with a 37% increased risk (p = 0.02, and exploratory stratified analysis suggested the association was only significant among those in the lowest tertile of vegetable intake.To our knowledge, this is the first study to comprehensively examine variation in one-carbon metabolism genes in relation to RCC risk. We identified a novel association with SLC19A1, which is important for transport of folate into cells. Replication in other populations is required to confirm these findings.

Thermodynamics in Neurodegenerative Diseases: Interplay Between Canonical WNT/Beta-Catenin Pathway-PPAR Gamma, Energy Metabolism and Circadian Rhythms.

Science.gov (United States)

Vallée, Alexandre; Lecarpentier, Yves; Guillevin, Rémy; Vallée, Jean-Noël

2018-03-23

Entropy production rate is increased by several metabolic and thermodynamics abnormalities in neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). Irreversible processes are quantified by changes in the entropy production rate. This review is focused on the opposing interactions observed in NDs between the canonical WNT/beta-catenin pathway and PPAR gamma and their metabolic and thermodynamic implications. In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Huntington's disease, WNT/beta-catenin pathway is upregulated, whereas PPAR gamma is downregulated. In Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, WNT/beta-catenin pathway is downregulated while PPAR gamma is upregulated. The dysregulation of the canonical WNT/beta-catenin pathway is responsible for the modification of thermodynamics behaviors of metabolic enzymes. Upregulation of WNT/beta-catenin pathway leads to aerobic glycolysis, named Warburg effect, through activated enzymes, such as glucose transporter (Glut), pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2), pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1(PDK1), monocarboxylate lactate transporter 1 (MCT-1), lactic dehydrogenase kinase-A (LDH-A) and inactivation of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDH). Downregulation of WNT/beta-catenin pathway leads to oxidative stress and cell death through inactivation of Glut, PKM2, PDK1, MCT-1, LDH-A but activation of PDH. In addition, in NDs, PPAR gamma is dysregulated, whereas it contributes to the regulation of several key circadian genes. NDs show many dysregulation in the mediation of circadian clock genes and so of circadian rhythms. Thermodynamics rhythms operate far-from-equilibrium and partly regulate interactions between WNT/beta-catenin pathway and PPAR gamma. In NDs, metabolism, thermodynamics and circadian rhythms are tightly interrelated.

The return of metabolism: biochemistry and physiology of the pentose phosphate pathway

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stincone, A.; Prigione, A.; Cramer, T.; Wamelink, M.M.C.; Campbell, K.; Cheung, E.; Olin-Sandoval, V.; Gruning, N.M.; Kruger, A.; Alam, M.T.; Keller, M.A.; Breitenbach, M.; Brindle, K.M.; Rabinowitz, J.D.; Ralser, M.

2015-01-01

The pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) is a fundamental component of cellular metabolism. The PPP is important to maintain carbon homoeostasis, to provide precursors for nucleotide and amino acid biosynthesis, to provide reducing molecules for anabolism, and to defeat oxidative stress. The PPP shares

Dynamic optimal control of homeostasis: an integrative system approach for modeling of the central nitrogen metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Science.gov (United States)

van Riel, N A; Giuseppin, M L; Verrips, C T

2000-01-01

The theory of dynamic optimal metabolic control (DOMC), as developed by Giuseppin and Van Riel (Metab. Eng., 2000), is applied to model the central nitrogen metabolism (CNM) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The CNM represents a typical system encountered in advanced metabolic engineering. The CNM is the source of the cellular amino acids and proteins, including flavors and potentially valuable biomolecules; therefore, it is also of industrial interest. In the DOMC approach the cell is regarded as an optimally controlled system. Given the metabolic genotype, the cell faces a control problem to maintain an optimal flux distribution in a changing environment. The regulation is based on strategies and balances feedback control of homeostasis and feedforward regulation for adaptation. The DOMC approach is an integrative, holistic approach, not based on mechanistic descriptions and (therefore) not biased by the variation present in biochemical and molecular biological data. It is an effective tool to structure the rapidly increasing amount of data on the function of genes and pathways. The DOMC model is used successfully to predict the responses of pulses of ammonia and glutamine to nitrogen-limited continuous cultures of a wild-type strain and a glutamine synthetase-negative mutant. The simulation results are validated with experimental data.

Structure of Pigment Metabolic Pathways and Their Contributions to White Tepal Color Formation of Chinese Narcissus tazetta var. chinensis cv Jinzhanyintai.

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Yujun; Yang, Jingwen; Lu, Bingguo; Jiang, Yaping; Chen, Haiyang; Hong, Yuwei; Wu, Binghua; Miao, Ying

2017-09-08

Chinese narcissus ( Narcissus tazetta var. chinensis ) is one of the ten traditional flowers in China and a famous bulb flower in the world flower market. However, only white color tepals are formed in mature flowers of the cultivated varieties, which constrains their applicable occasions. Unfortunately, for lack of genome information of narcissus species, the explanation of tepal color formation of Chinese narcissus is still not clear. Concerning no genome information, the application of transcriptome profile to dissect biological phenomena in plants was reported to be effective. As known, pigments are metabolites of related metabolic pathways, which dominantly decide flower color. In this study, transcriptome profile and pigment metabolite analysis methods were used in the most widely cultivated Chinese narcissus "Jinzhanyintai" to discover the structure of pigment metabolic pathways and their contributions to white tepal color formation during flower development and pigmentation processes. By using comparative KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, three pathways related to flavonoid, carotenoid and chlorophyll pigment metabolism showed significant variations. The structure of flavonoids metabolic pathway was depicted, but, due to the lack of F3'5'H gene; the decreased expression of C4H , CHS and ANS genes; and the high expression of FLS gene, the effect of this pathway to synthesize functional anthocyanins in tepals was weak. Similarly, the expression of DXS , MCT and PSY genes in carotenoids synthesis sub-pathway was decreased, while CCD1 / CCD4 genes in carotenoids degradation sub-pathway was increased; therefore, the effect of carotenoids metabolic pathway to synthesize adequate color pigments in tepals is restricted. Interestingly, genes in chlorophyll synthesis sub-pathway displayed uniform down-regulated expression, while genes in heme formation and chlorophyll breakdown sub-pathways displayed up-regulated expression, which also indicates negative regulation

SISMA: A SOFTWARE FOR DYNAMIC SIMULATION OF METABOLIC PATHWAYS IN BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION

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J.A. Macedo

2008-05-01

Full Text Available The main purpose of metabolic pathway charts is  clarifying the flow of reactants and products  devised by enzyme  catalytic  reactions . Learning the wealth of information in metabolic pathways , however, is both challenging and overwhelming for students, mainly due to the static nature of printed charts.  In this sense the goal of this work was to develop a software environment for  metabolic chart studies, enhancing both student learning and retention. The system named SISMA (Sistema de Simulações Metabólicas was developed using  the  Unified Modeling Language (UML and Rational Unified Process (RUP tools for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting  the  software system.  SISMA  was modelled with  JAVA programming  language, due to its versatility, efficiency, platform portability, and security. Use Case diagrams were constructing to describe the available functionality of  the software  and  the set of scenarios describing the interactions with the end user, with constraints defined by B usiness  Rules.  In brief, SISMA  can  dynamically  illustrate standard and physiopathological  flow of reactants, create and modifiy compounds, pathways,  and co-factors, and report kinectic data,  among others.  In this way SISMA  can be used as a complementary tool on both conventional full-time as distance learning courses in biochemistry and biotechnology.

Subpathway-GM: identification of metabolic subpathways via joint power of interesting genes and metabolites and their topologies within pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Chunquan; Han, Junwei; Yao, Qianlan; Zou, Chendan; Xu, Yanjun; Zhang, Chunlong; Shang, Desi; Zhou, Lingyun; Zou, Chaoxia; Sun, Zeguo; Li, Jing; Zhang, Yunpeng; Yang, Haixiu; Gao, Xu; Li, Xia

2013-05-01

Various 'omics' technologies, including microarrays and gas chromatography mass spectrometry, can be used to identify hundreds of interesting genes, proteins and metabolites, such as differential genes, proteins and metabolites associated with diseases. Identifying metabolic pathways has become an invaluable aid to understanding the genes and metabolites associated with studying conditions. However, the classical methods used to identify pathways fail to accurately consider joint power of interesting gene/metabolite and the key regions impacted by them within metabolic pathways. In this study, we propose a powerful analytical method referred to as Subpathway-GM for the identification of metabolic subpathways. This provides a more accurate level of pathway analysis by integrating information from genes and metabolites, and their positions and cascade regions within the given pathway. We analyzed two colorectal cancer and one metastatic prostate cancer data sets and demonstrated that Subpathway-GM was able to identify disease-relevant subpathways whose corresponding entire pathways might be ignored using classical entire pathway identification methods. Further analysis indicated that the power of a joint genes/metabolites and subpathway strategy based on their topologies may play a key role in reliably recalling disease-relevant subpathways and finding novel subpathways.

Metabolic engineering of the phenylpropanoid pathway enhances the antioxidant capacity of Saussurea involucrata.

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Jian Qiu

Full Text Available The rare wild species of snow lotus Saussurea involucrata is a commonly used medicinal herb with great pharmacological value for human health, resulting from its uniquely high level of phenylpropanoid compound production. To gain information on the phenylpropanid biosynthetic pathway genes in this critically important medicinal plant, global transcriptome sequencing was performed. It revealed that the phenylpropanoid pathway genes were well represented in S. involucrata. In addition, we introduced two key phenylpropanoid pathway inducing transcription factors (PAP1 and Lc into this medicinal plant. Transgenic S. involucrata co-expressing PAP1 and Lc exhibited purple pigments due to a massive accumulation of anthocyanins. The over-expression of PAP1 and Lc largely activated most of the phenylpropanoid pathway genes, and increased accumulation of several phenylpropanoid compounds significantly, including chlorogenic acid, syringin, cyanrine and rutin. Both ABTS (2,2'-azinobis-3-ethylbenzotiazo-line-6-sulfonic acid and FRAP (ferric reducing anti-oxidant power assays revealed that the antioxidant capacity of transgenic S. involucrata lines was greatly enhanced over controls. In addition to providing a deeper understanding of the molecular basis of phenylpropanoid metabolism, our results potentially enable an alternation of bioactive compound production in S. involucrata through metabolic engineering.

Curcumin regulates insulin pathways and glucose metabolism in the brains of APPswe/PS1dE9 mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Pengwen; Su, Caixin; Feng, Huili; Chen, Xiaopei; Dong, Yunfang; Rao, Yingxue; Ren, Ying; Yang, Jinduo; Shi, Jing; Tian, Jinzhou; Jiang, Shucui

2017-03-01

Recent studies have shown the therapeutic potential of curcumin in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In 2014, our lab found that curcumin reduced Aβ40, Aβ42 and Aβ-derived diffusible ligands in the mouse hippocampus, and improved learning and memory. However, the mechanisms underlying this biological effect are only partially known. There is considerable evidence in brain metabolism studies indicating that AD might be a brain-specific type of diabetes with progressive impairment of glucose utilisation and insulin signalling. We hypothesised that curcumin might target both the glucose metabolism and insulin signalling pathways. In this study, we monitored brain glucose metabolism in living APPswe/PS1dE9 double transgenic mice using a micro-positron emission tomography (PET) technique. The study showed an improvement in cerebral glucose uptake in AD mice. For a more in-depth study, we used immunohistochemical (IHC) staining and western blot techniques to examine key factors in both glucose metabolism and brain insulin signalling pathways. The results showed that curcumin ameliorated the defective insulin signalling pathway by upregulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1R, IRS-2, PI3K, p-PI3K, Akt and p-Akt protein expression while downregulating IR and IRS-1. Our study found that curcumin improved spatial learning and memory, at least in part, by increasing glucose metabolism and ameliorating the impaired insulin signalling pathways in the brain.

Hypothalamic AMPK-ER Stress-JNK1 Axis Mediates the Central Actions of Thyroid Hormones on Energy Balance.

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Martínez-Sánchez, Noelia; Seoane-Collazo, Patricia; Contreras, Cristina; Varela, Luis; Villarroya, Joan; Rial-Pensado, Eva; Buqué, Xabier; Aurrekoetxea, Igor; Delgado, Teresa C; Vázquez-Martínez, Rafael; González-García, Ismael; Roa, Juan; Whittle, Andrew J; Gomez-Santos, Beatriz; Velagapudi, Vidya; Tung, Y C Loraine; Morgan, Donald A; Voshol, Peter J; Martínez de Morentin, Pablo B; López-González, Tania; Liñares-Pose, Laura; Gonzalez, Francisco; Chatterjee, Krishna; Sobrino, Tomás; Medina-Gómez, Gema; Davis, Roger J; Casals, Núria; Orešič, Matej; Coll, Anthony P; Vidal-Puig, Antonio; Mittag, Jens; Tena-Sempere, Manuel; Malagón, María M; Diéguez, Carlos; Martínez-Chantar, María Luz; Aspichueta, Patricia; Rahmouni, Kamal; Nogueiras, Rubén; Sabio, Guadalupe; Villarroya, Francesc; López, Miguel

2017-07-05

Thyroid hormones (THs) act in the brain to modulate energy balance. We show that central triiodothyronine (T3) regulates de novo lipogenesis in liver and lipid oxidation in brown adipose tissue (BAT) through the parasympathetic (PSNS) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS), respectively. Central T3 promotes hepatic lipogenesis with parallel stimulation of the thermogenic program in BAT. The action of T3 depends on AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-induced regulation of two signaling pathways in the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMH): decreased ceramide-induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, which promotes BAT thermogenesis, and increased c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation, which controls hepatic lipid metabolism. Of note, ablation of AMPKα1 in steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1) neurons of the VMH fully recapitulated the effect of central T3, pointing to this population in mediating the effect of central THs on metabolism. Overall, these findings uncover the underlying pathways through which central T3 modulates peripheral metabolism. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

De novo assembly and functional annotation of Myrciaria dubia fruit transcriptome reveals multiple metabolic pathways for L-ascorbic acid biosynthesis.

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Castro, Juan C; Maddox, J Dylan; Cobos, Marianela; Requena, David; Zimic, Mirko; Bombarely, Aureliano; Imán, Sixto A; Cerdeira, Luis A; Medina, Andersson E

2015-11-24

Myrciaria dubia is an Amazonian fruit shrub that produces numerous bioactive phytochemicals, but is best known by its high L-ascorbic acid (AsA) content in fruits. Pronounced variation in AsA content has been observed both within and among individuals, but the genetic factors responsible for this variation are largely unknown. The goals of this research, therefore, were to assemble, characterize, and annotate the fruit transcriptome of M. dubia in order to reconstruct metabolic pathways and determine if multiple pathways contribute to AsA biosynthesis. In total 24,551,882 high-quality sequence reads were de novo assembled into 70,048 unigenes (mean length = 1150 bp, N50 = 1775 bp). Assembled sequences were annotated using BLASTX against public databases such as TAIR, GR-protein, FB, MGI, RGD, ZFIN, SGN, WB, TIGR_CMR, and JCVI-CMR with 75.2 % of unigenes having annotations. Of the three core GO annotation categories, biological processes comprised 53.6 % of the total assigned annotations, whereas cellular components and molecular functions comprised 23.3 and 23.1 %, respectively. Based on the KEGG pathway assignment of the functionally annotated transcripts, five metabolic pathways for AsA biosynthesis were identified: animal-like pathway, myo-inositol pathway, L-gulose pathway, D-mannose/L-galactose pathway, and uronic acid pathway. All transcripts coding enzymes involved in the ascorbate-glutathione cycle were also identified. Finally, we used the assembly to identified 6314 genic microsatellites and 23,481 high quality SNPs. This study describes the first next-generation sequencing effort and transcriptome annotation of a non-model Amazonian plant that is relevant for AsA production and other bioactive phytochemicals. Genes encoding key enzymes were successfully identified and metabolic pathways involved in biosynthesis of AsA, anthocyanins, and other metabolic pathways have been reconstructed. The identification of these genes and pathways is in agreement with

Spatial localization of the first and last enzymes effectively connects active metabolic pathways in bacteria.

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Meyer, Pablo; Cecchi, Guillermo; Stolovitzky, Gustavo

2014-12-14

Although much is understood about the enzymatic cascades that underlie cellular biosynthesis, comparatively little is known about the rules that determine their cellular organization. We performed a detailed analysis of the localization of E.coli GFP-tagged enzymes for cells growing exponentially. We found that out of 857 globular enzymes, at least 219 have a discrete punctuate localization in the cytoplasm and catalyze the first or the last reaction in 60% of biosynthetic pathways. A graph-theoretic analysis of E.coli's metabolic network shows that localized enzymes, in contrast to non-localized ones, form a tree-like hierarchical structure, have a higher within-group connectivity, and are traversed by a higher number of feed-forward and feedback loops than their non-localized counterparts. A Gene Ontology analysis of these enzymes reveals an enrichment of terms related to essential metabolic functions in growing cells. Given that these findings suggest a distinct metabolic role for localization, we studied the dynamics of cellular localization of the cell wall synthesizing enzymes in B. subtilis and found that enzymes localize during exponential growth but not during stationary growth. We conclude that active biochemical pathways inside the cytoplasm are organized spatially following a rule where their first or their last enzymes localize to effectively connect the different active pathways and thus could reflect the activity state of the cell's metabolic network.

Hypoxia Pathway Proteins As Central Mediators of Metabolism in the Tumor Cells and Their Microenvironment

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Sundary Sormendi

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Low oxygen tension or hypoxia is a determining factor in the course of many different processes in animals, including when tissue expansion and cellular metabolism result in high oxygen demands that exceed its supply. This is mainly happening when cells actively proliferate and the proliferating mass becomes distant from the blood vessels, such as in growing tumors. Metabolic alterations in response to hypoxia can be triggered in a direct manner, such as the switch from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis or inhibition of fatty acid desaturation. However, as the modulated action of hypoxia-inducible factors or the oxygen sensors (prolyl hydroxylase domain-containing enzymes can also lead to changes in enzyme expression, these metabolic changes can also be indirect. With this review, we want to summarize our current knowledge of the hypoxia-induced changes in metabolism during cancer development, how they are affected in the tumor cells and in the cells of the microenvironment, most prominently in immune cells.

The "parallel pathway": a novel nutritional and metabolic approach to cancer patients.

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Muscaritoli, Maurizio; Molfino, Alessio; Gioia, Gianfranco; Laviano, Alessandro; Rossi Fanelli, Filippo

2011-04-01

Cancer-associated malnutrition results from a deadly combination of anorexia, which leads to reduced food intake, and derangements of host metabolism inducing body weight loss, and hindering its reversal with nutrient supplementation. Cancer patients often experience both anorexia and weight loss, contributing to the onset of the clinical feature named as anorexia-cachexia syndrome. This condition has a negative impact upon patients' nutritional status. The pathogenesis of the anorexia-cachexia syndrome is multifactorial, and is related to: tumour-derived factors, host-derived factors inducing metabolic derangements, and side effects of anticancer therapies. In addition, the lack of awareness of cancer patients' nutritional issues and status by many oncologists, frequently results in progressive weight loss going undiagnosed until it becomes severe. The critical involvement of host inflammatory response in the development of weight loss, and, in particular, lean body mass depletion, limits the response to the provision of standard nutrition support. A novel nutritional and metabolic approach, named "parallel pathway", has been devised that may help maintain or improve nutritional status, and prevent or delay the onset of cancer cachexia. Such an approach may improve tolerance to aggressive anticancer therapies, and ameliorate the functional capacity and quality of life even in advanced disease stages. The "parallel pathway" implies a multiprofessional and multimodal approach aimed at ensuring early, appropriate and continuous nutritional and metabolic support to cancer patients in any phase of their cancer journey.

Distribution and phylogenies of enzymes of the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway from archaea and hyperthermophilic bacteria support a gluconeogenic origin of metabolism

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Ron S. Ronimus

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Enzymes of the gluconeogenic/glycolytic pathway (the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas (EMP pathway, the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle, the reductive pentose phosphate cycle and the Entner-Doudoroff pathway are widely distributed and are often considered to be central to the origins of metabolism. In particular, several enzymes of the lower portion of the EMP pathway (the so-called trunk pathway, including triosephosphate isomerase (TPI; EC 5.3.1.1, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH; EC 1.2.1.12/13, phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK; EC 2.7.2.3 and enolase (EC 4.2.1.11, are extremely well conserved and universally distributed among the three domains of life. In this paper, the distribution of enzymes of gluconeogenesis/glycolysis in hyperthermophiles—microorganisms that many believe represent the least evolved organisms on the planet—is reviewed. In addition, the phylogenies of the trunk pathway enzymes (TPIs, GAPDHs, PGKs and enolases are examined. The enzymes catalyzing each of the six-carbon transformations in the upper portion of the EMP pathway, with the possible exception of aldolase, are all derived from multiple gene sequence families. In contrast, single sequence families can account for the archaeal and hyperthermophilic bacterial enzyme activities of the lower portion of the EMP pathway. The universal distribution of the trunk pathway enzymes, in combination with their phylogenies, supports the notion that the EMP pathway evolved in the direction of gluconeogenesis, i.e., from the bottom up.

Evaluation by mass fragmentography of metabolic pathways of endogenous and exogenous compounds in eukaryote cell cultures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Padieu, P.; Maume, B.F.

1977-01-01

Carbon-14 labelled compounds in cell cultures are used to establish the interconnections between different metabolic pathways as well as the competitive action of effectors on these different pathways. Analysis was performed by the GC-MS combination. Identification was carried out by comparison with the mass spectra of d9-TMS, 35 Cl-TMS and 37 Cl-TMS derivatizations of the culture extracts. Examples are given of the metabolic study of hormonal steroids and of safrale, a carcinogenic compound, by differentiated eukaryotic cells in cultures from the rat

The Importance of Transition Metals in the Expanding Network of Microbial Metabolism in the Archean Eon

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Moore, E. K.; Jelen, B. I.; Giovannelli, D.; Prabhu, A.; Raanan, H.; Falkowski, P. G.

2017-12-01

Deep time changes in Earth surface redox conditions, particularly due to global oxygenation, has impacted the availability of different metals and substrates that are central in biology. Oxidoreductase proteins are molecular nanomachines responsible for all biological electron transfer processes across the tree of life. These enzymes largely contain transition metals in their active sites. Microbial metabolic pathways form a global network of electron transfer, which expanded throughout the Archean eon. Older metabolisms (sulfur reduction, methanogenesis, anoxygenic photosynthesis) accessed negative redox potentials, while later evolving metabolisms (oxygenic photosynthesis, nitrification/denitrification, aerobic respiration) accessed positive redox potentials. The incorporation of different transition metals facilitated biological innovation and the expansion of the network of microbial metabolism. Network analysis was used to examine the connections between microbial taxa, metabolic pathways, crucial metallocofactors, and substrates in deep time by incorporating biosignatures preserved in the geologic record. Nitrogen fixation and aerobic respiration have the highest level of betweenness among metabolisms in the network, indicating that the oldest metabolisms are not the most central. Fe has by far the highest betweenness among metals. Clustering analysis largely separates High Metal Bacteria (HMB), Low Metal Bacteria (LMB), and Archaea showing that simple un-weighted links between taxa, metabolism, and metals have phylogenetic relevance. On average HMB have the highest betweenness among taxa, followed by Archaea and LMB. There is a correlation between the number of metallocofactors and metabolic pathways in representative bacterial taxa, but Archaea do not follow this trend. In many cases older and more recently evolved metabolisms were clustered together supporting previous findings that proliferation of metabolic pathways is not necessarily chronological.

Effect of CAR activation on selected metabolic pathways in normal and hyperlipidemic mouse livers.

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Rezen, Tadeja; Tamasi, Viola; Lövgren-Sandblom, Anita; Björkhem, Ingemar; Meyer, Urs A; Rozman, Damjana

2009-08-19

Detoxification in the liver involves activation of nuclear receptors, such as the constitutive androstane receptor (CAR), which regulate downstream genes of xenobiotic metabolism. Frequently, the metabolism of endobiotics is also modulated, resulting in potentially harmful effects. We therefore used 1,4-Bis [2-(3,5-dichloropyridyloxy)] benzene (TCPOBOP) to study the effect of CAR activation on mouse hepatic transcriptome and lipid metabolome under conditions of diet-induced hyperlipidemia. Using gene expression profiling with a dedicated microarray, we show that xenobiotic metabolism, PPARalpha and adipocytokine signaling, and steroid synthesis are the pathways most affected by TCPOBOP in normal and hyperlipidemic mice. TCPOBOP-induced CAR activation prevented the increased hepatic and serum cholesterol caused by feeding mice a diet containing 1% cholesterol. We show that this is due to increased bile acid metabolism and up-regulated removal of LDL, even though TCPOBOP increased cholesterol synthesis under conditions of hyperlipidemia. Up-regulation of cholesterol synthesis was not accompanied by an increase in mature SREBP2 protein. As determined by studies in CAR -/- mice, up-regulation of cholesterol synthesis is however CAR-dependent; and no obvious CAR binding sites were detected in promoters of cholesterogenic genes. TCPOBOP also affected serum glucose and triglyceride levels and other metabolic processes in the liver, irrespective of the diet. Our data show that CAR activation modulates hepatic metabolism by lowering cholesterol and glucose levels, through effects on PPARalpha and adiponectin signaling pathways, and by compromising liver adaptations to hyperlipidemia.

Suppression of the Escherichia coli dnaA46 mutation by changes in the activities of the pyruvate-acetate node links DNA replication regulation to central carbon metabolism.

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Tymecka-Mulik, Joanna; Boss, Lidia; Maciąg-Dorszyńska, Monika; Matias Rodrigues, João F; Gaffke, Lidia; Wosinski, Anna; Cech, Grzegorz M; Szalewska-Pałasz, Agnieszka; Węgrzyn, Grzegorz; Glinkowska, Monika

2017-01-01

To ensure faithful transmission of genetic material to progeny cells, DNA replication is tightly regulated, mainly at the initiation step. Escherichia coli cells regulate the frequency of initiation according to growth conditions. Results of the classical, as well as the latest studies, suggest that the DNA replication in E. coli starts at a predefined, constant cell volume per chromosome but the mechanisms coordinating DNA replication with cell growth are still not fully understood. Results of recent investigations have revealed a role of metabolic pathway proteins in the control of cell division and a direct link between metabolism and DNA replication has also been suggested both in Bacillus subtilis and E. coli cells. In this work we show that defects in the acetate overflow pathway suppress the temperature-sensitivity of a defective replication initiator-DnaA under acetogenic growth conditions. Transcriptomic and metabolic analyses imply that this suppression is correlated with pyruvate accumulation, resulting from alterations in the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) activity. Consequently, deletion of genes encoding the pyruvate dehydrogenase subunits likewise resulted in suppression of the thermal-sensitive growth of the dnaA46 strain. We propose that the suppressor effect may be directly related to the PDH complex activity, providing a link between an enzyme of the central carbon metabolism and DNA replication.

Autotrophic microbe metagenomes and metabolic pathways differentiate adjacent red sea brine pools

KAUST Repository

Wang, Yong

2013-04-29

In the Red Sea, two neighboring deep-sea brine pools, Atlantis II and Discovery, have been studied extensively, and the results have shown that the temperature and concentrations of metal and methane in Atlantis II have increased over the past decades. Therefore, we investigated changes in the microbial community and metabolic pathways. Here, we compared the metagenomes of the two pools to each other and to those of deep-sea water samples. Archaea were generally absent in the Atlantis II metagenome; Bacteria in the metagenome were typically heterotrophic and depended on aromatic compounds and other extracellular organic carbon compounds as indicated by enrichment of the related metabolic pathways. In contrast, autotrophic Archaea capable of CO2 fixation and methane oxidation were identified in Discovery but not in Atlantis II. Our results suggest that hydrothermal conditions and metal precipitation in the Atlantis II pool have resulted in elimination of the autotrophic community and methanogens.

Water deficit alters differentially metabolic pathways affecting important flavor and quality traits in grape berries of Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay

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Deluc, Laurent G; Quilici, David R; Decendit, Alain; Grimplet, Jérôme; Wheatley, Matthew D; Schlauch, Karen A; Mérillon, Jean-Michel; Cushman, John C; Cramer, Grant R

2009-01-01

Background Water deficit has significant effects on grape berry composition resulting in improved wine quality by the enhancement of color, flavors, or aromas. While some pathways or enzymes affected by water deficit have been identified, little is known about the global effects of water deficit on grape berry metabolism. Results The effects of long-term, seasonal water deficit on berries of Cabernet Sauvignon, a red-wine grape, and Chardonnay, a white-wine grape were analyzed by integrated transcript and metabolite profiling. Over the course of berry development, the steady-state transcript abundance of approximately 6,000 Unigenes differed significantly between the cultivars and the irrigation treatments. Water deficit most affected the phenylpropanoid, ABA, isoprenoid, carotenoid, amino acid and fatty acid metabolic pathways. Targeted metabolites were profiled to confirm putative changes in specific metabolic pathways. Water deficit activated the expression of numerous transcripts associated with glutamate and proline biosynthesis and some committed steps of the phenylpropanoid pathway that increased anthocyanin concentrations in Cabernet Sauvignon. In Chardonnay, water deficit activated parts of the phenylpropanoid, energy, carotenoid and isoprenoid metabolic pathways that contribute to increased concentrations of antheraxanthin, flavonols and aroma volatiles. Water deficit affected the ABA metabolic pathway in both cultivars. Berry ABA concentrations were highly correlated with 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED1) transcript abundance, whereas the mRNA expression of other NCED genes and ABA catabolic and glycosylation processes were largely unaffected. Water deficit nearly doubled ABA concentrations within berries of Cabernet Sauvignon, whereas it decreased ABA in Chardonnay at véraison and shortly thereafter. Conclusion The metabolic responses of grapes to water deficit varied with the cultivar and fruit pigmentation. Chardonnay berries, which lack any

Water deficit alters differentially metabolic pathways affecting important flavor and quality traits in grape berries of Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay

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Deluc Laurent G

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Water deficit has significant effects on grape berry composition resulting in improved wine quality by the enhancement of color, flavors, or aromas. While some pathways or enzymes affected by water deficit have been identified, little is known about the global effects of water deficit on grape berry metabolism. Results The effects of long-term, seasonal water deficit on berries of Cabernet Sauvignon, a red-wine grape, and Chardonnay, a white-wine grape were analyzed by integrated transcript and metabolite profiling. Over the course of berry development, the steady-state transcript abundance of approximately 6,000 Unigenes differed significantly between the cultivars and the irrigation treatments. Water deficit most affected the phenylpropanoid, ABA, isoprenoid, carotenoid, amino acid and fatty acid metabolic pathways. Targeted metabolites were profiled to confirm putative changes in specific metabolic pathways. Water deficit activated the expression of numerous transcripts associated with glutamate and proline biosynthesis and some committed steps of the phenylpropanoid pathway that increased anthocyanin concentrations in Cabernet Sauvignon. In Chardonnay, water deficit activated parts of the phenylpropanoid, energy, carotenoid and isoprenoid metabolic pathways that contribute to increased concentrations of antheraxanthin, flavonols and aroma volatiles. Water deficit affected the ABA metabolic pathway in both cultivars. Berry ABA concentrations were highly correlated with 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED1 transcript abundance, whereas the mRNA expression of other NCED genes and ABA catabolic and glycosylation processes were largely unaffected. Water deficit nearly doubled ABA concentrations within berries of Cabernet Sauvignon, whereas it decreased ABA in Chardonnay at véraison and shortly thereafter. Conclusion The metabolic responses of grapes to water deficit varied with the cultivar and fruit pigmentation

Correlation of Metabolic Variables with the Number of ORFs in Human Pathogenic and Phylogenetically Related Non- or Less-Pathogenic Bacteria.

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Brambila-Tapia, Aniel Jessica Leticia; Poot-Hernández, Augusto Cesar; Garcia-Guevara, Jose Fernando; Rodríguez-Vázquez, Katya

2016-06-01

To date, a few works have performed a correlation of metabolic variables in bacteria; however specific correlations with these variables have not been reported. In this work, we included 36 human pathogenic bacteria and 18 non- or less-pathogenic-related bacteria and obtained all metabolic variables, including enzymes, metabolic pathways, enzymatic steps and specific metabolic pathways, and enzymatic steps of particular metabolic processes, from a reliable metabolic database (KEGG). Then, we correlated the number of the open reading frames (ORF) with these variables and with the proportions of these variables, and we observed a negative correlation with the proportion of enzymes (r = -0.506, p < 0.0001), metabolic pathways (r = -0.871, p < 00.0001), enzymatic reactions (r = -0.749, p < 00.0001), and with the proportions of central metabolism variables as well as a positive correlation with the proportions of multistep reactions (r = 0.650, p < 00.0001) and secondary metabolism variables. The proportion of multifunctional reactions (r: -0.114, p = 0.41) and the proportion of enzymatic steps (r: -0.205, p = 0.14) did not present a significant correlation. These correlations indicate that as the size of a genome (measured in the number of ORFs) increases, the proportion of genes that encode enzymes significantly diminishes (especially those related to central metabolism), suggesting that when essential metabolic pathways are complete, an increase in the number of ORFs does not require a similar increase in the metabolic pathways and enzymes, but only a slight increase is sufficient to cope with a large genome.

β-N-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) perturbs alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism pathways in human neuroblastoma cells as determined by metabolic profiling.

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Engskog, Mikael K R; Ersson, Lisa; Haglöf, Jakob; Arvidsson, Torbjörn; Pettersson, Curt; Brittebo, Eva

2017-05-01

β-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) is a non-proteinogenic amino acid that induces long-term cognitive deficits, as well as an increased neurodegeneration and intracellular fibril formation in the hippocampus of adult rodents following short-time neonatal exposure and in vervet monkey brain following long-term exposure. It has also been proposed to be involved in the etiology of neurodegenerative disease in humans. The aim of this study was to identify metabolic effects not related to excitotoxicity or oxidative stress in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. The effects of BMAA (50, 250, 1000 µM) for 24 h on cells differentiated with retinoic acid were studied. Samples were analyzed using LC-MS and NMR spectroscopy to detect altered intracellular polar metabolites. The analysis performed, followed by multivariate pattern recognition techniques, revealed significant perturbations in protein biosynthesis, amino acid metabolism pathways and citrate cycle. Of specific interest were the BMAA-induced alterations in alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism and as well as alterations in various neurotransmitters/neuromodulators such as GABA and taurine. The results indicate that BMAA can interfere with metabolic pathways involved in neurotransmission in human neuroblastoma cells.

Organization of metabolic pathways in vastus lateralis of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

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Green, Howard J; Bombardier, Eric; Burnett, Margaret; Iqbal, Sobia; D'Arsigny, Christine L; O'Donnell, Dennis E; Ouyang, Jing; Webb, Katherine A

2008-09-01

The objective of this study was to determine whether patients with chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) display differences in organization of the metabolic pathways and segments involved in energy supply compared with healthy control subjects. Metabolic pathway potential, based on the measurement of the maximal activity (V(max)) of representative enzymes, was assessed in tissue extracted from the vastus lateralis in seven patients with COPD (age 67 +/- 4 yr; FEV(1)/FVC = 44 +/- 3%, where FEV(1) is forced expiratory volume in 1 s and FVC is forced vital capacity; means +/- SE) and nine healthy age-matched controls (age 68 +/- 2 yr; FEV(1)/FVC = 75 +/- 2%). Compared with control, the COPD patients displayed lower (P chain and glycogenolysis and glycolysis relative to beta-oxidation.

Discriminating response groups in metabolic and regulatory pathway networks.

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Van Hemert, John L; Dickerson, Julie A

2012-04-01

Analysis of omics experiments generates lists of entities (genes, metabolites, etc.) selected based on specific behavior, such as changes in response to stress or other signals. Functional interpretation of these lists often uses category enrichment tests using functional annotations like Gene Ontology terms and pathway membership. This approach does not consider the connected structure of biochemical pathways or the causal directionality of events. The Omics Response Group (ORG) method, described in this work, interprets omics lists in the context of metabolic pathway and regulatory networks using a statistical model for flow within the networks. Statistical results for all response groups are visualized in a novel Pathway Flow plot. The statistical tests are based on the Erlang distribution model under the assumption of independent and identically Exponential-distributed random walk flows through pathways. As a proof of concept, we applied our method to an Escherichia coli transcriptomics dataset where we confirmed common knowledge of the E.coli transcriptional response to Lipid A deprivation. The main response is related to osmotic stress, and we were also able to detect novel responses that are supported by the literature. We also applied our method to an Arabidopsis thaliana expression dataset from an abscisic acid study. In both cases, conventional pathway enrichment tests detected nothing, while our approach discovered biological processes beyond the original studies. We created a prototype for an interactive ORG web tool at http://ecoserver.vrac.iastate.edu/pathwayflow (source code is available from https://subversion.vrac.iastate.edu/Subversion/jlv/public/jlv/pathwayflow). The prototype is described along with additional figures and tables in Supplementary Material. julied@iastate.edu Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Dietary modification of metabolic pathways via nuclear hormone receptors.

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Caiozzi, Gianella; Wong, Brian S; Ricketts, Marie-Louise

2012-10-01

Nuclear hormone receptors (NHRs), as ligand-dependent transcription factors, have emerged as important mediators in the control of whole body metabolism. Because of the promiscuous nature of several members of this superfamily that have been found to bind ligand with lower affinity than the classical steroid NHRs, they consequently display a broader ligand selectivity. This promiscuous nature has facilitated various bioactive dietary components being able to act as agonist ligands for certain members of the NHR superfamily. By binding to these NHRs, bioactive dietary components are able to mediate changes in various metabolic pathways, including, glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride homeostasis among others. This review will provide a general overview of the nuclear hormone receptors that have been shown to be activated by dietary components. The physiological consequences of such receptor activation by these dietary components will then be discussed in more detail. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Evolution of a flipped pathway creates metabolic innovation in tomato trichomes through BAHD enzyme promiscuity.

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Fan, Pengxiang; Miller, Abigail M; Liu, Xiaoxiao; Jones, A Daniel; Last, Robert L

2017-12-12

Plants produce hundreds of thousands of structurally diverse specialized metabolites via multistep biosynthetic networks, including compounds of ecological and therapeutic importance. These pathways are restricted to specific plant groups, and are excellent systems for understanding metabolic evolution. Tomato and other plants in the nightshade family synthesize protective acylated sugars in the tip cells of glandular trichomes on stems and leaves. We describe a metabolic innovation in wild tomato species that contributes to acylsucrose structural diversity. A small number of amino acid changes in two acylsucrose acyltransferases alter their acyl acceptor preferences, resulting in reversal of their order of reaction and increased product diversity. This study demonstrates how small numbers of amino acid changes in multiple pathway enzymes can lead to diversification of specialized metabolites in plants. It also highlights the power of a combined genetic, genomic and in vitro biochemical approach to identify the evolutionary mechanisms leading to metabolic novelty.

Molecular Basis of Microbial One-Carbon Metabolism 2008 Gordon Research Conference (July 20-25, 2008)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stephen W. Ragsdale

2009-08-12

One-carbon (C-1) compounds play a central role in microbial metabolism. C-1 compounds include methane, carbon monoxide, CO2, and methanol as well as coenzyme-bound one-carbon compounds (methyl-B12, CH3-H4folate, etc). Such compounds are of broad global importance because several C-1 compounds (e.g., CH4) are important energy sources, some (e.g., CO2 and CH4) are potent greenhouse gases, and others (e.g., CH2Cl2) are xenobiotics. They are central in pathways of energy metabolism and carbon fixation by microbes and many are of industrial interest. Research on the pathways of one-carbon metabolism has added greatly to our understanding of evolution, structural biology, enzyme mechanisms, gene regulation, ecology, and applied biology. The 2008 meeting will include recent important findings in the following areas: (a) genomics, metagenomics, and proteomic studies that have expanded our understanding of autotrophy and C-1 metabolism and the evolution of these pathways; (b) redox regulation of carbon cycles and the interrelationship between the carbon cycle and other biogeochemical cycles (sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen); (c) novel pathways for carbon assimilation; (d) biotechnology related to C-1 metabolism; (e) novel enzyme mechanisms including channeling of C-1 intermediates during metabolism; and (f) the relationship between metal homeostasis and the global carbon cycle. The conference has a diverse and gender-balanced slate of speakers and session leaders. The wide variety of disciplines brought to the study of C-1 metabolism make the field an excellent one in which to train young researchers.

All in the family: Clueing into the link between metabolic syndrome and hematologic malignancies.

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Karmali, Reem; Dalovisio, Andrew; Borgia, Jeffrey A; Venugopal, Parameswaran; Kim, Brian W; Grant-Szymanski, Kelly; Hari, Parameswaran; Lazarus, Hillard

2015-03-01

Metabolic syndrome constitutes a constellation of findings including central obesity, insulin resistance/type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), dyslipidemia and hypertension. Metabolic syndrome affects 1 in 4 adults in the United States and is rapidly rising in prevalence, largely driven by the dramatic rise in obesity and insulin resistance/DM. Being central to the development of metabolic syndrome and its other related diseases, much focus has been placed on identifying the mitogenic effects of obesity and insulin resistance/DM as mechanistic clues of the link between metabolic syndrome and cancer. Pertinent mechanisms identified include altered lipid signaling, adipokine and inflammatory cytokine effects, and activation of PI3K/Akt/mTOR and RAS/RAF/MAPK/ERK pathways via dysregulated insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) signaling. Through variable activation of these multiple pathways, obesity and insulin resistance/DM pre-dispose to hematologic malignancies, imposing the aggressive and chemo-resistant phenotypes typically seen in cancer patients with underlying metabolic syndrome. Growing understanding of these pathways has identified druggable cancer targets, rationalizing the development and testing of agents like PI3K inhibitor idelalisib, mTOR inhibitors everolimus and temsirolimus, and IGF-1 receptor inhibitor linsitinib. It has also led to exploration of obesity and diabetes-directed therapies including statins and oral hypoglycemic for the management of metabolic syndrome-related hematologic neoplasms. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A simplified method for power-law modelling of metabolic pathways from time-course data and steady-state flux profiles.

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Kitayama, Tomoya; Kinoshita, Ayako; Sugimoto, Masahiro; Nakayama, Yoichi; Tomita, Masaru

2006-07-17

In order to improve understanding of metabolic systems there have been attempts to construct S-system models from time courses. Conventionally, non-linear curve-fitting algorithms have been used for modelling, because of the non-linear properties of parameter estimation from time series. However, the huge iterative calculations required have hindered the development of large-scale metabolic pathway models. To solve this problem we propose a novel method involving power-law modelling of metabolic pathways from the Jacobian of the targeted system and the steady-state flux profiles by linearization of S-systems. The results of two case studies modelling a straight and a branched pathway, respectively, showed that our method reduced the number of unknown parameters needing to be estimated. The time-courses simulated by conventional kinetic models and those described by our method behaved similarly under a wide range of perturbations of metabolite concentrations. The proposed method reduces calculation complexity and facilitates the construction of large-scale S-system models of metabolic pathways, realizing a practical application of reverse engineering of dynamic simulation models from the Jacobian of the targeted system and steady-state flux profiles.

A simplified method for power-law modelling of metabolic pathways from time-course data and steady-state flux profiles

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Sugimoto Masahiro

2006-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In order to improve understanding of metabolic systems there have been attempts to construct S-system models from time courses. Conventionally, non-linear curve-fitting algorithms have been used for modelling, because of the non-linear properties of parameter estimation from time series. However, the huge iterative calculations required have hindered the development of large-scale metabolic pathway models. To solve this problem we propose a novel method involving power-law modelling of metabolic pathways from the Jacobian of the targeted system and the steady-state flux profiles by linearization of S-systems. Results The results of two case studies modelling a straight and a branched pathway, respectively, showed that our method reduced the number of unknown parameters needing to be estimated. The time-courses simulated by conventional kinetic models and those described by our method behaved similarly under a wide range of perturbations of metabolite concentrations. Conclusion The proposed method reduces calculation complexity and facilitates the construction of large-scale S-system models of metabolic pathways, realizing a practical application of reverse engineering of dynamic simulation models from the Jacobian of the targeted system and steady-state flux profiles.

Fatty acids in energy metabolism of the central nervous system.

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Panov, Alexander; Orynbayeva, Zulfiya; Vavilin, Valentin; Lyakhovich, Vyacheslav

2014-01-01

In this review, we analyze the current hypotheses regarding energy metabolism in the neurons and astroglia. Recently, it was shown that up to 20% of the total brain's energy is provided by mitochondrial oxidation of fatty acids. However, the existing hypotheses consider glucose, or its derivative lactate, as the only main energy substrate for the brain. Astroglia metabolically supports the neurons by providing lactate as a substrate for neuronal mitochondria. In addition, a significant amount of neuromediators, glutamate and GABA, is transported into neurons and also serves as substrates for mitochondria. Thus, neuronal mitochondria may simultaneously oxidize several substrates. Astrocytes have to replenish the pool of neuromediators by synthesis de novo, which requires large amounts of energy. In this review, we made an attempt to reconcile β-oxidation of fatty acids by astrocytic mitochondria with the existing hypothesis on regulation of aerobic glycolysis. We suggest that, under condition of neuronal excitation, both metabolic pathways may exist simultaneously. We provide experimental evidence that isolated neuronal mitochondria may oxidize palmitoyl carnitine in the presence of other mitochondrial substrates. We also suggest that variations in the brain mitochondrial metabolic phenotype may be associated with different mtDNA haplogroups.

Pathways of primary CO2 fixation in C-4 plants of the family chenopodiaceae from the arid zone of central Asia

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P'yankov, V.I.; Vakhrusheva, D.V.

1991-01-01

The authors determined the kinetics of 14 C incorporation after a 10-sec gulp of 14 CO 2 to study formation of primary photosynthetic products in 35 C-4 species of the family chenopodiaceae in the desert zone of central Asia. Representatives of the main life forms of desert plants with various types of anatomical structure of the assimilating organs (salsoloid, kochioid, atriplercoid, and suaedoid groups) were among the studied species. It was demonstrated that the ratio of pathways of formation of C-4 acids (malate and aspartate) depends upon the structural type affiliation and the ecological conditions of the habitat. Plants of the suaedoid and atriplecoid groups (which usually dwell under conditions of salination) exhibit the aspartate NAD-malic enzyme (NAD-ME) type of C-4 photosynthesis. The malate and aspartate types of metabolism are detected in species of the kochioid group. All biochemical variants (NADP-ME, NAD-ME, and mixed) are represented in the salsoloid group. Psammophilous species of this group have the malate type of acid metabolism, whereas halophilic species have the aspartate type. Quantitative criteria are proposed for referring C-4 plants to the NAD- and NADP-ME types on the basis of formation of primary products. It is demonstrated that the role of the aspartate pathway of CO 2 transfer in plants increases in proportion to worsening of ecological conditions of the habitat. The evolutionary sequence of metabolic systems was formed in the C-3-NAD-ME-NADP-ME direction, the origin of the C-4 syndrome having been associated with colonization of arid territories, especially saline localities

Metabolic pathway analysis and kinetic studies for production of nattokinase in Bacillus subtilis.

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Unrean, Pornkamol; Nguyen, Nhung H A

2013-01-01

We have constructed a reaction network model of Bacillus subtilis. The model was analyzed using a pathway analysis tool called elementary mode analysis (EMA). The analysis tool was used to study the network capabilities and the possible effects of altered culturing conditions on the production of a fibrinolytic enzyme, nattokinase (NK) by B. subtilis. Based on all existing metabolic pathways, the maximum theoretical yield for NK synthesis in B. subtilis under different substrates and oxygen availability was predicted and the optimal culturing condition for NK production was identified. To confirm model predictions, experiments were conducted by testing these culture conditions for their influence on NK activity. The optimal culturing conditions were then applied to batch fermentation, resulting in high NK activity. The EMA approach was also applied for engineering B. subtilis metabolism towards the most efficient pathway for NK synthesis by identifying target genes for deletion and overexpression that enable the cell to produce NK at the maximum theoretical yield. The consistency between experiments and model predictions proves the feasibility of EMA being used to rationally design culture conditions and genetic manipulations for the efficient production of desired products.

Tools and strategies for discovering novel enzymes and metabolic pathways

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John A. Gerlt

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The number of entries in the sequence databases continues to increase exponentially – the UniProt database is increasing with a doubling time of ∼4 years (2% increase/month. Approximately 50% of the entries have uncertain, unknown, or incorrect function annotations because these are made by automated methods based on sequence homology. If the potential in complete genome sequences is to be realized, strategies and tools must be developed to facilitate experimental assignment of functions to uncharacterized proteins discovered in genome projects. The Enzyme Function Initiative (EFI; previously supported by U54GM093342 from the National Institutes of Health, now supported by P01GM118303 developed web tools for visualizing and analyzing (1 sequence and function space in protein families (EFI-EST and (2 genome neighbourhoods in microbial and fungal genomes (EFI-GNT to assist the design of experimental strategies for discovering the in vitro activities and in vivo metabolic functions of uncharacterized enzymes. The EFI developed an experimental platform for large-scale production of the solute binding proteins (SBPs for ABC, TRAP, and TCT transport systems and their screening with a physical ligand library to identify the identities of the ligands for these transport systems. Because the genes that encode transport systems are often co-located with the genes that encode the catabolic pathways for the transported solutes, the identity of the SBP ligand together with the EFI-EST and EFI-GNT web tools can be used to discover new enzyme functions and new metabolic pathways. This approach is demonstrated with the characterization of a novel pathway for ethanolamine catabolism.

Akt signaling-associated metabolic effects of dietary gold nanoparticles in Drosophila

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Wang, Bin; Chen, Nan; Wei, Yingliang; Li, Jiang; Sun, Li; Wu, Jiarui; Huang, Qing; Liu, Chang; Fan, Chunhai; Song, Haiyun

2012-08-01

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are often used as vehicles to deliver drugs or biomolecules, due to their mild effect on cell survival and proliferation. However, little is known about their effect on cellular metabolism. Here we examine the in vivo effect of AuNPs on metabolism using Drosophila as a model. Drosophila and vertebrates possess similar basic metabolic functions, and a highly conserved PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway plays a central role in the regulation of energy metabolism in both organisms. We show that dietary AuNPs enter the fat body, a key metabolic tissue in Drosophila larvae. Significantly, larvae fed with AuNP show increased lipid levels without triggering stress responses. In addition, activities of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and fatty acids synthesis are increased in these larvae. This study thus reveals a novel function of AuNPs in influencing animal metabolism and suggests its potential therapeutic applications for metabolic disorders.

The Essential Role of Cholesterol Metabolism in the Intracellular Survival of Mycobacterium leprae Is Not Coupled to Central Carbon Metabolism and Energy Production.

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Marques, Maria Angela M; Berrêdo-Pinho, Marcia; Rosa, Thabatta L S A; Pujari, Venugopal; Lemes, Robertha M R; Lery, Leticia M S; Silva, Carlos Adriano M; Guimarães, Ana Carolina R; Atella, Georgia C; Wheat, William H; Brennan, Patrick J; Crick, Dean C; Belisle, John T; Pessolani, Maria Cristina V

2015-12-01

Mycobacterium leprae induces the formation of lipid droplets, which are recruited to pathogen-containing phagosomes in infected macrophages and Schwann cells. Cholesterol is among the lipids with increased abundance in M. leprae-infected cells, and intracellular survival relies on cholesterol accumulation. The present study investigated the capacity of M. leprae to acquire and metabolize cholesterol. In silico analyses showed that oxidation of cholesterol to cholest-4-en-3-one (cholestenone), the first step of cholesterol degradation catalyzed by the enzyme 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β-HSD), is apparently the only portion of the cholesterol catabolic pathway seen in Mycobacterium tuberculosis preserved by M. leprae. Incubation of bacteria with radiolabeled cholesterol confirmed the in silico predictions. Radiorespirometry and lipid analyses performed after incubating M. leprae with [4-(14)C]cholesterol or [26-(14)C]cholesterol showed the inability of this pathogen to metabolize the sterol rings or the side chain of cholesterol as a source of energy and carbon. However, the bacteria avidly incorporated cholesterol and, as expected, converted it to cholestenone both in vitro and in vivo. Our data indicate that M. leprae has lost the capacity to degrade and utilize cholesterol as a nutritional source but retains the enzyme responsible for its oxidation to cholestenone. Thus, the essential role of cholesterol metabolism in the intracellular survival of M. leprae is uncoupled from central carbon metabolism and energy production. Further elucidation of cholesterol metabolism in the host cell during M. leprae infection will establish the mechanism by which this lipid supports M. leprae intracellular survival and will open new avenues for novel leprosy therapies. Our study focused on the obligate intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium leprae and its capacity to metabolize cholesterol. The data make an important contribution for those interested in understanding the

Critical assessment of human metabolic pathway databases: a stepping stone for future integration

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Stobbe Miranda D

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Multiple pathway databases are available that describe the human metabolic network and have proven their usefulness in many applications, ranging from the analysis and interpretation of high-throughput data to their use as a reference repository. However, so far the various human metabolic networks described by these databases have not been systematically compared and contrasted, nor has the extent to which they differ been quantified. For a researcher using these databases for particular analyses of human metabolism, it is crucial to know the extent of the differences in content and their underlying causes. Moreover, the outcomes of such a comparison are important for ongoing integration efforts. Results We compared the genes, EC numbers and reactions of five frequently used human metabolic pathway databases. The overlap is surprisingly low, especially on reaction level, where the databases agree on 3% of the 6968 reactions they have combined. Even for the well-established tricarboxylic acid cycle the databases agree on only 5 out of the 30 reactions in total. We identified the main causes for the lack of overlap. Importantly, the databases are partly complementary. Other explanations include the number of steps a conversion is described in and the number of possible alternative substrates listed. Missing metabolite identifiers and ambiguous names for metabolites also affect the comparison. Conclusions Our results show that each of the five networks compared provides us with a valuable piece of the puzzle of the complete reconstruction of the human metabolic network. To enable integration of the networks, next to a need for standardizing the metabolite names and identifiers, the conceptual differences between the databases should be resolved. Considerable manual intervention is required to reach the ultimate goal of a unified and biologically accurate model for studying the systems biology of human metabolism. Our comparison

Fenofibrate inhibits atrial metabolic remodelling in atrial fibrillation through PPAR-α/sirtuin 1/PGC-1α pathway.

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Liu, Guang-Zhong; Hou, Ting-Ting; Yuan, Yue; Hang, Peng-Zhou; Zhao, Jing-Jing; Sun, Li; Zhao, Guan-Qi; Zhao, Jing; Dong, Jing-Mei; Wang, Xiao-Bing; Shi, Hang; Liu, Yong-Wu; Zhou, Jing-Hua; Dong, Zeng-Xiang; Liu, Yang; Zhan, Cheng-Chuang; Li, Yue; Li, Wei-Min

2016-03-01

Atrial metabolic remodelling is critical for the process of atrial fibrillation (AF). The PPAR-α/sirtuin 1 /PPAR co-activator α (PGC-1α) pathway plays an important role in maintaining energy metabolism. However, the effect of the PPAR-α agonist fenofibrate on AF is unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of fenofibrate on atrial metabolic remodelling in AF and explore its possible mechanisms of action. The expression of metabolic proteins was examined in the left atria of AF patients. Thirty-two rabbits were divided into sham, AF (pacing with 600 beats·min(-1) for 1 week), fenofibrate treated (pretreated with fenofibrate before pacing) and fenofibrate alone treated (for 2 weeks) groups. HL-1 cells were subjected to rapid pacing in the presence or absence of fenofibrate, the PPAR-α antagonist GW6471 or sirtuin 1-specific inhibitor EX527. Metabolic factors, circulating biochemical metabolites, atrial electrophysiology, adenine nucleotide levels and accumulation of glycogen and lipid droplets were assessed. The PPAR-α/sirtuin 1/PGC-1α pathway was significantly inhibited in AF patients and in the rabbit/HL-1 cell models, resulting in a reduction of key downstream metabolic factors; this effect was significantly restored by fenofibrate. Fenofibrate prevented the alterations in circulating biochemical metabolites, reduced the level of adenine nucleotides and accumulation of glycogen and lipid droplets, reversed the shortened atrial effective refractory period and increased risk of AF. Fenofibrate inhibited atrial metabolic remodelling in AF by regulating the PPAR-α/sirtuin 1/PGC-1α pathway. The present study may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for AF. © 2016 The British Pharmacological Society.

Central Retinal Artery Occlusion in a Patient with Metabolic Syndrome X

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Sonja Predrag Cekić

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: To report a case of central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO in a patient with metabolic syndrome X. Case Report: A 64 year-old-man presented with abrupt, painless, and severe loss of vision in his left eye. Indirect ophthalmoscopy disclosed signs compatible with CRAO and laboratory investigations revealed erythrocyte sedimentation rate of 74 mm/h, C-reactive protein (CRP level of 21 mg/l, hyperglycemia, hyperuricemia, hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia. Fluorescein angiography and immunological studies excluded other systemic disorders. The patient met the full criteria of the National Cholesterol Education Program for metabolic syndrome X. Conclusion: In addition to different vascular complications such as stroke, and cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome X may be associated with retinal vascular occlusions.

Microchip electrophoresis with electrochemical detection for the determination of analytes in the dopamine metabolic pathway

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Saylor, Rachel A.; Reid, Erin A.; Lunte, Susan M.

2016-01-01

A method for the separation and detection of analytes in the dopamine metabolic pathway was developed using microchip electrophoresis with electrochemical detection. The microchip consisted of a 5 cm PDMS separation channel in a simple-t configuration. Analytes in the dopamine metabolic pathway were separated using a background electrolyte composed of 15 mM phosphate at pH 7.4, 15 mM SDS, and 2.5 mM boric acid. Two different microchip substrates using different electrode materials were compared for the analysis: a PDMS/PDMS device with a carbon fiber electrode and a PDMS/glass hybrid device with a pyrolyzed photoresist film carbon electrode. While the PDMS/PDMS device generated high separation efficiencies and good resolution, more reproducible migration times were obtained with the PDMS/glass hybrid device, making it a better choice for biological applications. Lastly, the optimized method was used to monitor L-DOPA metabolism in a rat brain slice. PMID:25958983

Cholesterol: Its Regulation and Role in Central Nervous System Disorders

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Matthias Orth

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Cholesterol is a major constituent of the human brain, and the brain is the most cholesterol-rich organ. Numerous lipoprotein receptors and apolipoproteins are expressed in the brain. Cholesterol is tightly regulated between the major brain cells and is essential for normal brain development. The metabolism of brain cholesterol differs markedly from that of other tissues. Brain cholesterol is primarily derived by de novo synthesis and the blood brain barrier prevents the uptake of lipoprotein cholesterol from the circulation. Defects in cholesterol metabolism lead to structural and functional central nervous system diseases such as Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, Niemann-Pick type C disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. These diseases affect different metabolic pathways (cholesterol biosynthesis, lipid transport and lipoprotein assembly, apolipoproteins, lipoprotein receptors, and signaling molecules. We review the metabolic pathways of cholesterol in the CNS and its cell-specific and microdomain-specific interaction with other pathways such as the amyloid precursor protein and discuss potential treatment strategies as well as the effects of the widespread use of LDL cholesterol-lowering drugs on brain functions.

Inflammatory cause of metabolic syndrome via brain stress and NF-κB

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Cai, Dongsheng; Liu, Tiewen

2012-01-01

Metabolic syndrome, a network of medical disorders that greatly increase the risk for developing metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, has reached epidemic levels in many areas of today's world. Despite this alarming medicare situation, scientific understandings on the root mechanisms of metabolic syndrome are still limited, and such insufficient knowledge contributes to the relative lack of effective treatments or preventions for related diseases. Recent interdisciplinary studies from neuroendocrinology and neuroimmunology fields have revealed that overnutrition can trigger intracellular stresses to cause inflammatory changes mediated by molecules that control innate immunity. This type of nutrition-related molecular inflammation in the central nervous system, particularly in the hypothalamus, can form a common pathogenic basis for the induction of various metabolic syndrome components such as obesity, insulin resistance, and hypertension. Proinflammatory NF-κB pathway has been revealed as a key molecular system for pathologic induction of brain inflammation, which translates overnutrition and resulting intracellular stresses into central neuroendocrine and neural dysregulations of energy, glucose, and cardiovascular homeostasis, collectively leading to metabolic syndrome. This article reviews recent research advances in the neural mechanisms of metabolic syndrome and related diseases from the perspective of pathogenic induction by intracellular stresses and NF-κB pathway of the brain. PMID:22328600

Transcriptome Analysis of Three Sheep Intestinal Regions reveals Key Pathways and Hub Regulatory Genes of Large Intestinal Lipid Metabolism.

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Chao, Tianle; Wang, Guizhi; Ji, Zhibin; Liu, Zhaohua; Hou, Lei; Wang, Jin; Wang, Jianmin

2017-07-13

The large intestine, also known as the hindgut, is an important part of the animal digestive system. Recent studies on digestive system development in ruminants have focused on the rumen and the small intestine, but the molecular mechanisms underlying sheep large intestine metabolism remain poorly understood. To identify genes related to intestinal metabolism and to reveal molecular regulation mechanisms, we sequenced and compared the transcriptomes of mucosal epithelial tissues among the cecum, proximal colon and duodenum. A total of 4,221 transcripts from 3,254 genes were identified as differentially expressed transcripts. Between the large intestine and duodenum, differentially expressed transcripts were found to be significantly enriched in 6 metabolism-related pathways, among which PPAR signaling was identified as a key pathway. Three genes, CPT1A, LPL and PCK1, were identified as higher expression hub genes in the large intestine. Between the cecum and colon, differentially expressed transcripts were significantly enriched in 5 lipid metabolism related pathways, and CEPT1 and MBOAT1 were identified as hub genes. This study provides important information regarding the molecular mechanisms of intestinal metabolism in sheep and may provide a basis for further study.

New insights into uremia-induced alterations in metabolic pathways.

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Rhee, Eugene P; Thadhani, Ravi

2011-11-01

This article summarizes recent studies on uremia-induced alterations in metabolism, with particular emphasis on the application of emerging metabolomics technologies. The plasma metabolome is estimated to include more than 4000 distinct metabolites. Because these metabolites can vary dramatically in size and polarity and are distributed across several orders of magnitude in relative abundance, no single analytical method is capable of comprehensive metabolomic profiling. Instead, a variety of analytical techniques, including targeted and nontargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, have been employed for metabolomic analysis of human plasma. Recent efforts to apply this technology to study uremia have reinforced the common view that end-stage renal disease is a state of generalized small molecule excess. However, the identification of precursor depletion and downstream metabolite excess - for example, with tryptophan and downstream kynurenine metabolites, with low molecular weight triglycerides and dicarboxylic acids, and with phosphatidylcholines, choline, and trimethylamine-N-oxide - suggest that uremia may directly modulate these metabolic pathways. Metabolomic studies have also begun to expand some of these findings to individuals with chronic kidney disease and in model systems. Uremia is associated with diverse, but incompletely understood metabolic disturbances. Metabolomic approaches permit higher resolution phenotyping of these disturbances, but significant efforts will be required to understand the functional significance of select findings.

The new insight on the regulatory role of the vitamin D3 in metabolic pathways characteristic for cancerogenesis and neurodegenerative diseases.

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Kubis, Adriana Maria; Piwowar, Agnieszka

2015-11-01

Apart from the classical function of regulating intestinal, bone and kidney calcium and phosphorus absorption as well as bone mineralization, there is growing evidence for the neuroprotective function of vitamin D3 through neuronal calcium regulation, the antioxidative pathway, immunomodulation and detoxification. Vitamin D3 and its derivates influence directly or indirectly almost all metabolic processes such as proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, inflammatory processes and mutagenesis. Such multifactorial effects of vitamin D3 can be a profitable source of new therapeutic solutions for two radically divergent diseases, cancer and neurodegeneration. Interestingly, an unusual association seems to exist between the occurrence of these two pathological states, called "inverse comorbidity". Patients with cognitive dysfunctions or dementia have considerably lower risk of cancer, whereas survivors of cancer have lower prevalence of central nervous system (CNS) disorders. To our knowledge, there are few publications analyzing the role of vitamin D3 in biological pathways existing in carcinogenic and neuropathological disorders. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perturbations in amino acids and metabolic pathways in osteoarthritis patients determined by targeted metabolomics analysis.

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Chen, Rui; Han, Su; Liu, Xuefeng; Wang, Kunpeng; Zhou, Yong; Yang, Chundong; Zhang, Xi

2018-05-15

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative synovial joint disease affecting people worldwide. However, the exact pathogenesis of OA remains unclear. Metabolomics analysis was performed to obtain insight into possible pathogenic mechanisms and diagnostic biomarkers of OA. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-TQ-MS), followed by multivariate statistical analysis, was used to determine the serum amino acid profiles of 32 OA patients and 35 healthy controls. Variable importance for project values and Student's t-test were used to determine the metabolic abnormalities in OA. Another 30 OA patients were used as independent samples to validate the alterations in amino acids. MetaboAnalyst was used to identify the key amino acid pathways and construct metabolic networks describing their relationships. A total of 25 amino acids and four biogenic amines were detected by UPLC-TQ-MS. Differences in amino acid profiles were found between the healthy controls and OA patients. Alanine, γ-aminobutyric acid and 4-hydroxy-l-proline were important biomarkers distinguishing OA patients from healthy controls. The metabolic pathways with the most significant effects were involved in metabolism of alanine, aspartate, glutamate, arginine and proline. The results of this study improve understanding of the amino acid metabolic abnormalities and pathogenic mechanisms of OA at the molecular level. The metabolic perturbations may be important for the diagnosis and prevention of OA. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impact of xylose and mannose on central metabolism of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

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Pitkaenen, J.P.

2005-07-01

In this study, understanding of the central metabolism was improved by quantification of metabolite concentrations, enzyme activities, protein abundances, and gene transcript concentrations. Intracellular fluxes were estimated by applying stoichiometric models of metabolism. The methods were applied in the study of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in two separate projects. A xylose project aimed at improved utilization of D- xylose as a substrate for, e.g., producing biomaterial- based fuel ethanol. A mannose project studied the production of GDP-mannose from D-mannose in a strain lacking the gene for phosphomannose isomerase (PMI40 deletion). Hexose, D-glucose is the only sugar more abundant than pentose D-xylose. D-xylose is common in hardwoods (e.g. birch) and crop residues (ca. 25% of dry weight). However, S. cerevisiae is unable to utilize D- xylose without a recombinant pathway where D-xylose is converted to Dxylulose. In this study D-xylose was converted in two steps via xylitol: by D-xylose reductase and xylitol dehydrogenase encoded by XYL1 and XYL2 from Pichia stipitis, respectively. Additionally, endogenous xylulokinase (XKS1) was overexpressed in order to increase the consumption of D-xylose by enhancing the phosphorylation of D-xylulose. Despite of the functional recombinant pathway the utilization rates of D xylose still remained low. This study proposes a set of limitations that are responsible for the low utilization rates of D-xylose under microaerobic conditions. Cells compensated for the cofactor imbalance, caused by the conversion of D-xylose to D- xylulose, by increasing the flux through the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway and by shuttling NADH redox potential to mitochondrion to be oxidized in oxidative phosphorylation. However, mitochondrial NADH inhibits citrate synthase in citric acid cycle, and consequently lower flux through citric acid cycle limits oxidative phosphorylation. Further, limitations in the uptake of D- xylose, in the

The role of inflammatory pathway genetic variation on maternal metabolic phenotypes during pregnancy.

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Margrit Urbanek

Full Text Available Since mediators of inflammation are associated with insulin resistance, and the risk of developing diabetes mellitus and gestational diabetes, we hypothesized that genetic variation in members of the inflammatory gene pathway impact glucose levels and related phenotypes in pregnancy. We evaluated this hypothesis by testing for association between genetic variants in 31 inflammatory pathway genes in the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome (HAPO cohort, a large multiethnic multicenter study designed to address the impact of glycemia less than overt diabetes on pregnancy outcome.Fasting, 1-hour, and 2-hour glucose, fasting and 1-hour C-peptide, and HbA1c levels were measured in blood samples obtained from HAPO participants during an oral glucose tolerance test at 24-32 weeks gestation. We tested for association between 458 SNPs mapping to 31 genes in the inflammatory pathway and metabolic phenotypes in 3836 European ancestry and 1713 Thai pregnant women. The strongest evidence for association was observed with TNF alpha and HbA1c (rs1052248; 0.04% increase per allele C; p-value = 4.4×10(-5, RETN and fasting plasma glucose (rs1423096; 0.7 mg/dl decrease per allele A; p-value = 1.1×10(-4, IL8 and 1 hr plasma glucose (rs2886920; 2.6 mg/dl decrease per allele T; p-value = 1.3×10(-4, ADIPOR2 and fasting C-peptide (rs2041139; 0.55 ug/L decrease per allele A; p-value = 1.4×10(-4, LEPR and 1-hour C-peptide (rs1171278; 0.62 ug/L decrease per allele T; p-value = 2.4×10(-4, and IL6 and 1-hour plasma glucose (rs6954897; -2.29 mg/dl decrease per allele G, p-value = 4.3×10(-4.Based on the genes surveyed in this study the inflammatory pathway is unlikely to have a strong impact on maternal metabolic phenotypes in pregnancy although variation in individual members of the pathway (e.g. RETN, IL8, ADIPOR2, LEPR, IL6, and TNF alpha, may contribute to metabolic phenotypes in pregnant women.

Global Metabolic Reconstruction and Metabolic Gene Evolution in the Cattle Genome

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Kim, Woonsu; Park, Hyesun; Seo, Seongwon

2016-01-01

The sequence of cattle genome provided a valuable opportunity to systematically link genetic and metabolic traits of cattle. The objectives of this study were 1) to reconstruct genome-scale cattle-specific metabolic pathways based on the most recent and updated cattle genome build and 2) to identify duplicated metabolic genes in the cattle genome for better understanding of metabolic adaptations in cattle. A bioinformatic pipeline of an organism for amalgamating genomic annotations from multiple sources was updated. Using this, an amalgamated cattle genome database based on UMD_3.1, was created. The amalgamated cattle genome database is composed of a total of 33,292 genes: 19,123 consensus genes between NCBI and Ensembl databases, 8,410 and 5,493 genes only found in NCBI or Ensembl, respectively, and 266 genes from NCBI scaffolds. A metabolic reconstruction of the cattle genome and cattle pathway genome database (PGDB) was also developed using Pathway Tools, followed by an intensive manual curation. The manual curation filled or revised 68 pathway holes, deleted 36 metabolic pathways, and added 23 metabolic pathways. Consequently, the curated cattle PGDB contains 304 metabolic pathways, 2,460 reactions including 2,371 enzymatic reactions, and 4,012 enzymes. Furthermore, this study identified eight duplicated genes in 12 metabolic pathways in the cattle genome compared to human and mouse. Some of these duplicated genes are related with specific hormone biosynthesis and detoxifications. The updated genome-scale metabolic reconstruction is a useful tool for understanding biology and metabolic characteristics in cattle. There has been significant improvements in the quality of cattle genome annotations and the MetaCyc database. The duplicated metabolic genes in the cattle genome compared to human and mouse implies evolutionary changes in the cattle genome and provides a useful information for further research on understanding metabolic adaptations of cattle. PMID

Metabolic cytometry: capillary electrophoresis with two-color fluorescence detection for the simultaneous study of two glycosphingolipid metabolic pathways in single primary neurons.

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Essaka, David C; Prendergast, Jillian; Keithley, Richard B; Palcic, Monica M; Hindsgaul, Ole; Schnaar, Ronald L; Dovichi, Norman J

2012-03-20

Metabolic cytometry is a form of chemical cytometry wherein metabolic cascades are monitored in single cells. We report the first example of metabolic cytometry where two different metabolic pathways are simultaneously monitored. Glycolipid catabolism in primary rat cerebella neurons was probed by incubation with tetramethylrhodamine-labeled GM1 (GM1-TMR). Simultaneously, both catabolism and anabolism were probed by coincubation with BODIPY-FL labeled LacCer (LacCer-BODIPY-FL). In a metabolic cytometry experiment, single cells were incubated with substrate, washed, aspirated into a capillary, and lysed. The components were separated by capillary electrophoresis equipped with a two-spectral channel laser-induced fluorescence detector. One channel monitored fluorescence generated by the metabolic products produced from GM1-TMR and the other monitored the metabolic products produced from LacCer-BODIPY-FL. The metabolic products were identified by comparison with the mobility of a set of standards. The detection system produced at least 6 orders of magnitude dynamic range in each spectral channel with negligible spectral crosstalk. Detection limits were 1 zmol for BODIPY-FL and 500 ymol for tetramethylrhodamine standard solutions.

A board game to assist pharmacy students in learning metabolic pathways.

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Rose, Tyler M

2011-11-10

To develop and evaluate a board game designed to increase students' enjoyment of learning metabolic pathways; their familiarity with pathway reactions, intermediates, and regulation; and, their understanding of how pathways relate to one another and to selected biological conditions. The board game, entitled Race to Glucose, was created as a team activity for first-year pharmacy students in the biochemistry curriculum. A majority of respondents agreed that the game was helpful for learning regulation, intermediates, and interpathway relationships but not for learning reactions, formation of energetic molecules, or relationships, to biological conditions. There was a significant increase in students' scores on game-related examination questions (68.8% pretest vs. 81.3% posttest), but the improvement was no greater than that for examination questions not related to the game (12.5% vs. 10.9%). First-year pharmacy students considered Race to Glucose to be an enjoyable and helpful tool for learning intermediates, regulation, and interpathway relationships.

Computational Modeling of Fluctuations in Energy and Metabolic Pathways of Methanogenic Archaea

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Luthey-Schulten, Zaida [Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States). Dept. of Chemistry; Carl R. Woese Inst. for Genomic Biology

2017-01-04

The methanogenic archaea, anaerobic microbes that convert CO2 and H2 and/or other small organic fermentation products into methane, play an unusually large role in the global carbon cycle. As they perform the final step in the anaerobic breakdown of biomass, methanogens are a biogenic source of an estimated one billion tons methane each year. Depending on the location, produced methane can be considered as either a greenhouse gas (agricultural byproduct), sequestered carbon storage (methane hydrate deposits), or a potential energy source (organic wastewater treatment). These microbes therefore represent an important target for biotechnology applications. Computational models of methanogens with predictive power are useful aids in the adaptation of methanogenic systems, but need to connect processes of wide-ranging time and length scales. In this project, we developed several computational methodologies for modeling the dynamic behavior of entire cells that connects stochastic reaction-diffusion dynamics of individual biochemical pathways with genome-scale modeling of metabolic networks. While each of these techniques were in the realm of well-defined computational methods, here we integrated them to develop several entirely new approaches to systems biology. The first scientific aim of the project was to model how noise in a biochemical pathway propagates into cellular phenotypes. Genetic circuits have been optimized by evolution to regulate molecular processes despite stochastic noise, but the effect of such noise on a cellular biochemical networks is currently unknown. An integrated stochastic/systems model of Escherichia coli species was created to analyze how noise in protein expression gives—and therefore noise in metabolic fluxes—gives rise to multiple cellular phenotype in isogenic population. After the initial work developing and validating methods that allow characterization of the heterogeneity in the model organism E. coli, the project shifted toward

Metabolic pathway redundancy within the apicomplexan-dinoflagellate radiation argues against an ancient chromalveolate plastid

KAUST Repository

Waller, Ross F.

2015-12-08

The chromalveolate hypothesis presents an attractively simple explanation for the presence of red algal-derived secondary plastids in 5 major eukaryotic lineages: “chromista” phyla, cryptophytes, haptophytes and ochrophytes; and alveolate phyla, dinoflagellates and apicomplexans. It posits that a single secondary endosymbiotic event occurred in a common ancestor of these diverse groups, and that this ancient plastid has since been maintained by vertical inheritance only. Substantial testing of this hypothesis by molecular phylogenies has, however, consistently failed to provide support for the predicted monophyly of the host organisms that harbour these plastids—the “chromalveolates.” This lack of support does not disprove the chromalveolate hypothesis per se, but rather drives the proposed endosymbiosis deeper into the eukaryotic tree, and requires multiple plastid losses to have occurred within intervening aplastidic lineages. An alternative perspective on plastid evolution is offered by considering the metabolic partnership between the endosymbiont and its host cell. A recent analysis of metabolic pathways in a deep-branching dinoflagellate indicates a high level of pathway redundancy in the common ancestor of apicomplexans and dinoflagellates, and differential losses of these pathways soon after radiation of the major extant lineages. This suggests that vertical inheritance of an ancient plastid in alveolates is highly unlikely as it would necessitate maintenance of redundant pathways over very long evolutionary timescales.

Metabolic pathway redundancy within the apicomplexan-dinoflagellate radiation argues against an ancient chromalveolate plastid

KAUST Repository

Waller, Ross F.; Gornik, Sebastian G.; Koreny, Ludek; Pain, Arnab

2015-01-01

The chromalveolate hypothesis presents an attractively simple explanation for the presence of red algal-derived secondary plastids in 5 major eukaryotic lineages: “chromista” phyla, cryptophytes, haptophytes and ochrophytes; and alveolate phyla, dinoflagellates and apicomplexans. It posits that a single secondary endosymbiotic event occurred in a common ancestor of these diverse groups, and that this ancient plastid has since been maintained by vertical inheritance only. Substantial testing of this hypothesis by molecular phylogenies has, however, consistently failed to provide support for the predicted monophyly of the host organisms that harbour these plastids—the “chromalveolates.” This lack of support does not disprove the chromalveolate hypothesis per se, but rather drives the proposed endosymbiosis deeper into the eukaryotic tree, and requires multiple plastid losses to have occurred within intervening aplastidic lineages. An alternative perspective on plastid evolution is offered by considering the metabolic partnership between the endosymbiont and its host cell. A recent analysis of metabolic pathways in a deep-branching dinoflagellate indicates a high level of pathway redundancy in the common ancestor of apicomplexans and dinoflagellates, and differential losses of these pathways soon after radiation of the major extant lineages. This suggests that vertical inheritance of an ancient plastid in alveolates is highly unlikely as it would necessitate maintenance of redundant pathways over very long evolutionary timescales.

Leptin and the central nervous system control of glucose metabolism.

Science.gov (United States)

Morton, Gregory J; Schwartz, Michael W

2011-04-01

The regulation of body fat stores and blood glucose levels is critical for survival. This review highlights growing evidence that leptin action in the central nervous system plays a key role in both processes. Investigation into underlying mechanisms has begun to clarify the physiological role of leptin in the control of glucose metabolism and raises interesting new possibilities for the treatment of diabetes and related disorders.

Preschool Weight and Body Mass Index in Relation to Central Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in Adulthood

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Graversen, Lise; Sørensen, Thorkild I A; Petersen, Liselotte

2014-01-01

BACKGROUND: If preschool measures of body size routinely collected at preventive health examinations are associated with adult central obesity and metabolic syndrome, a focused use of these data for the identification of high risk children is possible. The aim of this study was to test the associ......BACKGROUND: If preschool measures of body size routinely collected at preventive health examinations are associated with adult central obesity and metabolic syndrome, a focused use of these data for the identification of high risk children is possible. The aim of this study was to test...... the associations between preschool weight and body mass index (BMI) and adult BMI, central obesity and metabolic alterations. METHODS: The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966) (N = 4111) is a population-based cohort. Preschool weight (age 5 months and 1 year) and BMI (age 2-5 years) were studied...... in relation to metabolic syndrome as well as BMI, waist circumference, lipoproteins, blood pressure, and fasting glucose at the age of 31 years. Linear regression models and generalized linear regression models with log link were used. RESULTS: Throughout preschool ages, weight and BMI were significantly...

Enhanced volatile fatty acids production from anaerobic fermentation of food waste: A mini-review focusing on acidogenic metabolic pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Miaomiao; Yan, Binghua; Wong, Jonathan W C; Zhang, Yang

2018-01-01

Recently, efficient disposal of food waste (FW) with potential resource recovery has attracted great attentions. Due to its easily biodegradable nature, rich nutrient availability and high moisture content, FW is regarded as favorable substrate for anaerobic digestion (AD). Both waste disposal and energy recovery can be fulfilled during AD of FW. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) which are the products of the first-two stages of AD, are widely applied in chemical industry as platform chemicals recently. Concentration and distribution of VFAs is the result of acidogenic metabolic pathways, which can be affected by the micro-environment (e.g. pH) in the digester. Hence, the clear elucidation of the acidogenic metabolic pathways is essential for optimization of acidogenic process for efficient product recovery. This review summarizes major acidogenic metabolic pathways and regulating strategies for enhancing VFAs recovery during acidogenic fermentation of FW. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae 3841 Adapts to 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid with "Auxin-Like" Morphological Changes, Cell Envelope Remodeling and Upregulation of Central Metabolic Pathways.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Supriya V Bhat

Full Text Available There is a growing need to characterize the effects of environmental stressors at the molecular level on model organisms with the ever increasing number and variety of anthropogenic chemical pollutants. The herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D, as one of the most widely applied pesticides in the world, is one such example. This herbicide is known to have non-targeted undesirable effects on humans, animals and soil microbes, but specific molecular targets at sublethal levels are unknown. In this study, we have used Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae 3841 (Rlv as a nitrogen fixing, beneficial model soil organism to characterize the effects of 2,4-D. Using metabolomics and advanced microscopy we determined specific target pathways in the Rlv metabolic network and consequent changes to its phenotype, surface ultrastructure, and physical properties during sublethal 2,4-D exposure. Auxin and 2,4-D, its structural analogue, showed common morphological changes in vitro which were similar to bacteroids isolated from plant nodules, implying that these changes are related to bacteroid differentiation required for nitrogen fixation. Rlv showed remarkable adaptation capabilities in response to the herbicide, with changes to integral pathways of cellular metabolism and the potential to assimilate 2,4-D with consequent changes to its physical and structural properties. This study identifies biomarkers of 2,4-D in Rlv and offers valuable insights into the mode-of-action of 2,4-D in soil bacteria.

Interrelationship of canonical and non-canonical Wnt signalling pathways in chronic metabolic diseases.

Science.gov (United States)

Ackers, Ian; Malgor, Ramiro

2018-01-01

Chronic diseases account for approximately 45% of all deaths in developed countries and are particularly prevalent in countries with the most sophisticated and robust public health systems. Chronic metabolic diseases, specifically lifestyle-related diseases pertaining to diet and exercise, continue to be difficult to treat clinically. The most prevalent of these chronic metabolic diseases include obesity, diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease and will be the focus of this review. Wnt proteins are highly conserved glycoproteins best known for their role in development and homeostasis of tissues. Given the importance of Wnt signalling in homeostasis, aberrant Wnt signalling likely regulates metabolic processes and may contribute to the development of chronic metabolic diseases. Expression of Wnt proteins and dysfunctional Wnt signalling has been reported in multiple chronic diseases. It is interesting to speculate about an interrelationship between the Wnt signalling pathways as a potential pathological mechanism in chronic metabolic diseases. The aim of this review is to summarize reported findings on the contrasting roles of Wnt signalling in lifestyle-related chronic metabolic diseases; specifically, the contribution of Wnt signalling to lipid accumulation, fibrosis and chronic low-grade inflammation.

Role of insulin, adipocyte hormones, and nutrient-sensing pathways in regulating fuel metabolism and energy homeostasis: a nutritional perspective of diabetes, obesity, and cancer.

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Marshall, Stephen

2006-08-01

Traditionally, nutrients such as glucose and amino acids have been viewed as substrates for the generation of high-energy molecules and as precursors for the biosynthesis of macromolecules. However, it is now apparent that nutrients also function as signaling molecules in functionally diverse signal transduction pathways. Glucose and amino acids trigger signaling cascades that regulate various aspects of fuel and energy metabolism and control the growth, proliferation, and survival of cells. Here, we provide a functional and regulatory overview of three well-established nutrient signaling pathways-the hexosamine signaling pathway, the mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) signaling pathway, and the adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathway. Nutrient signaling pathways are interconnected, coupled to insulin signaling, and linked to the release of metabolic hormones from adipose tissue. Thus, nutrient signaling pathways do not function in isolation. Rather, they appear to serve as components of a larger "metabolic regulatory network" that controls fuel and energy metabolism (at the cell, tissue, and whole-body levels) and links nutrient availability with cell growth and proliferation. Understanding the diverse roles of nutrients and delineating nutrient signaling pathways should facilitate drug discovery research and the search for novel therapeutic compounds to prevent and treat various human diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and cancer.

Clinical Relevance of Kynurenine Pathway in HIV/AIDS : An Immune Checkpoint at the Crossroads of Metabolism and Inflammation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Routy, Jean-Pierre; Mehraj, Vikram; Vyboh, Kishanda; Cao, Wei; Kema, Ido; Jenabian, Mohammad-Ali

2015-01-01

Tryptophan degradation along the kynurenine pathway is associated with a wide variety of pathophysiological processes, of which tumor tolerance and immune dysfunction in several chronic viral infections including HIV are well known. The kynurenine pathway is at the crossroads of metabolism and

Consortium analysis of gene and gene–folate interactions in purine and pyrimidine metabolism pathways with ovarian carcinoma risk

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kelemen, Linda E; Terry, Kathryn L; Goodman, Marc T

2014-01-01

SCOPE: We reevaluated previously reported associations between variants in pathways of one-carbon (1-C) (folate) transfer genes and ovarian carcinoma (OC) risk, and in related pathways of purine and pyrimidine metabolism, and assessed interactions with folate intake. METHODS AND RESULTS: Odds rat...

Prioritizing Candidate Disease Metabolites Based on Global Functional Relationships between Metabolites in the Context of Metabolic Pathways

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Haixiu; Xu, Yanjun; Han, Junwei; Li, Jing; Su, Fei; Zhang, Yunpeng; Zhang, Chunlong; Li, Dongguo; Li, Xia

2014-01-01

Identification of key metabolites for complex diseases is a challenging task in today's medicine and biology. A special disease is usually caused by the alteration of a series of functional related metabolites having a global influence on the metabolic network. Moreover, the metabolites in the same metabolic pathway are often associated with the same or similar disease. Based on these functional relationships between metabolites in the context of metabolic pathways, we here presented a pathway-based random walk method called PROFANCY for prioritization of candidate disease metabolites. Our strategy not only takes advantage of the global functional relationships between metabolites but also sufficiently exploits the functionally modular nature of metabolic networks. Our approach proved successful in prioritizing known metabolites for 71 diseases with an AUC value of 0.895. We also assessed the performance of PROFANCY on 16 disease classes and found that 4 classes achieved an AUC value over 0.95. To investigate the robustness of the PROFANCY, we repeated all the analyses in two metabolic networks and obtained similar results. Then we applied our approach to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and found that a top ranked candidate was potentially related to AD but had not been reported previously. Furthermore, our method was applicable to prioritize the metabolites from metabolomic profiles of prostate cancer. The PROFANCY could identify prostate cancer related-metabolites that are supported by literatures but not considered to be significantly differential by traditional differential analysis. We also developed a freely accessible web-based and R-based tool at http://bioinfo.hrbmu.edu.cn/PROFANCY. PMID:25153931

Metabolic Impact on the Hypothalamic Kisspeptin-Kiss1r Signaling Pathway

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fazal Wahab

2018-03-01

Full Text Available A large body of data has established the hypothalamic kisspeptin (KP and its receptor, KISS1R, as major players in the activation of the neuroendocrine reproductive axis at the time of puberty and maintenance of reproductive capacity in the adult. Due to its strategic location, this ligand-receptor pair acts as an integrator of cues from gonadal steroids as well as of circadian and seasonal variation-related information on the reproductive axis. Besides these cues, the activity of the hypothalamic KP signaling is very sensitive to the current metabolic status of the body. In conditions of energy imbalance, either positive or negative, a number of alterations in the hypothalamic KP signaling pathway have been documented in different mammalian models including nonhuman primates and human. Deficiency of metabolic fuels during fasting causes a marked reduction of Kiss1 gene transcript levels in the hypothalamus and, hence, decreases the output of KP-containing neurons. Food intake or exogenous supply of metabolic cues, such as leptin, reverses metabolic insufficiency-related changes in the hypothalamic KP signaling. Likewise, alterations in Kiss1 expression have also been reported in other situations of energy imbalance like diabetes and obesity. Information related to the body’s current metabolic status reaches to KP neurons both directly as well as indirectly via a complex network of other neurons. In this review article, we have provided an updated summary of the available literature on the regulation of the hypothalamic KP-Kiss1r signaling by metabolic cues. In particular, the potential mechanisms of metabolic impact on the hypothalamic KP-Kiss1r signaling, in light of available evidence, are discussed.

Deep Proteomics of Mouse Skeletal Muscle Enables Quantitation of Protein Isoforms, Metabolic Pathways, and Transcription Factors*

Science.gov (United States)

Deshmukh, Atul S.; Murgia, Marta; Nagaraj, Nagarjuna; Treebak, Jonas T.; Cox, Jürgen; Mann, Matthias

2015-01-01

Skeletal muscle constitutes 40% of individual body mass and plays vital roles in locomotion and whole-body metabolism. Proteomics of skeletal muscle is challenging because of highly abundant contractile proteins that interfere with detection of regulatory proteins. Using a state-of-the art MS workflow and a strategy to map identifications from the C2C12 cell line model to tissues, we identified a total of 10,218 proteins, including skeletal muscle specific transcription factors like myod1 and myogenin and circadian clock proteins. We obtain absolute abundances for proteins expressed in a muscle cell line and skeletal muscle, which should serve as a valuable resource. Quantitation of protein isoforms of glucose uptake signaling pathways and in glucose and lipid metabolic pathways provides a detailed metabolic map of the cell line compared with tissue. This revealed unexpectedly complex regulation of AMP-activated protein kinase and insulin signaling in muscle tissue at the level of enzyme isoforms. PMID:25616865

Novel pathway of NAD metabolism in Aspergillus niger

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuwahara, Masaaki

1977-01-01

New steps of NAD metabolism were shown in Aspergillus niger. Radioactive nicotinic acid and nicotinamide were incorporated into nicotinamide ribose diphosphate ribose (NAmRDPR), which had been isolated from the culture filtrate. The enzyme preparation of the mold degraded NAmRDPR to form nicotinamide mononucleotide and nicotinic acid under the neutral and alkaline conditions. In the acid extracts of the mycelia grown on the radioactive precursors, high level of radioactivity was detected on NAD. The experimental results showed that the Preiss-Handler pathway and the NAD cycling system function in the NAD biosynthesis in A. niger. A part of the radioactive precursors was also incorporated into nicotinic acid ribonucleoside, which was thought to be formed from nicotinic acid mononucleotide. (auth.)

Multiplatform serum metabolic phenotyping combined with pathway mapping to identify biochemical differences in smokers.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaluarachchi, Manuja R; Boulangé, Claire L; Garcia-Perez, Isabel; Lindon, John C; Minet, Emmanuel F

2016-10-01

Determining perturbed biochemical functions associated with tobacco smoking should be helpful for establishing causal relationships between exposure and adverse events. A multiplatform comparison of serum of smokers (n = 55) and never-smokers (n = 57) using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, UPLC-MS and statistical modeling revealed clustering of the classes, distinguished by metabolic biomarkers. The identified metabolites were subjected to metabolic pathway enrichment, modeling adverse biological events using available databases. Perturbation of metabolites involved in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular diseases and cancer were identified and discussed. Combining multiplatform metabolic phenotyping with knowledge-based mapping gives mechanistic insights into disease development, which can be applied to next-generation tobacco and nicotine products for comparative risk assessment.

DAG tales: the multiple faces of diacylglycerol--stereochemistry, metabolism, and signaling.

Science.gov (United States)

Eichmann, Thomas Oliver; Lass, Achim

2015-10-01

The neutral lipids diacylglycerols (DAGs) are involved in a plethora of metabolic pathways. They function as components of cellular membranes, as building blocks for glycero(phospho)lipids, and as lipid second messengers. Considering their central role in multiple metabolic processes and signaling pathways, cellular DAG levels require a tight regulation to ensure a constant and controlled availability. Interestingly, DAG species are versatile in their chemical structure. Besides the different fatty acid species esterified to the glycerol backbone, DAGs can occur in three different stereo/regioisoforms, each with unique biological properties. Recent scientific advances have revealed that DAG metabolizing enzymes generate and distinguish different DAG isoforms, and that only one DAG isoform holds signaling properties. Herein, we review the current knowledge of DAG stereochemistry and their impact on cellular metabolism and signaling. Further, we describe intracellular DAG turnover and its stereochemistry in a 3-pool model to illustrate the spatial and stereochemical separation and hereby the diversity of cellular DAG metabolism.

An Automated Pipeline for Engineering Many-Enzyme Pathways: Computational Sequence Design, Pathway Expression-Flux Mapping, and Scalable Pathway Optimization.

Science.gov (United States)

Halper, Sean M; Cetnar, Daniel P; Salis, Howard M

2018-01-01

Engineering many-enzyme metabolic pathways suffers from the design curse of dimensionality. There are an astronomical number of synonymous DNA sequence choices, though relatively few will express an evolutionary robust, maximally productive pathway without metabolic bottlenecks. To solve this challenge, we have developed an integrated, automated computational-experimental pipeline that identifies a pathway's optimal DNA sequence without high-throughput screening or many cycles of design-build-test. The first step applies our Operon Calculator algorithm to design a host-specific evolutionary robust bacterial operon sequence with maximally tunable enzyme expression levels. The second step applies our RBS Library Calculator algorithm to systematically vary enzyme expression levels with the smallest-sized library. After characterizing a small number of constructed pathway variants, measurements are supplied to our Pathway Map Calculator algorithm, which then parameterizes a kinetic metabolic model that ultimately predicts the pathway's optimal enzyme expression levels and DNA sequences. Altogether, our algorithms provide the ability to efficiently map the pathway's sequence-expression-activity space and predict DNA sequences with desired metabolic fluxes. Here, we provide a step-by-step guide to applying the Pathway Optimization Pipeline on a desired multi-enzyme pathway in a bacterial host.

Systems biology of human metabolism - Defining the epithelial to mesenchymal transition and the activity of human gluconokinase

OpenAIRE

Rohatgi, Neha

2016-01-01

Studying human metabolism is crucial for the understanding of diseases and improvement of therapy as metabolic alterations are central to a number of human diseases. A variety of experimental disciplines, such as biochemistry, biophysics and systems biology are involved in the elucidation of metabolic pathways. The work presented in this thesis is divided into three main studies, which expand the knowledge of human metabolism using systems biology and biochemical techniques....

Alternative Cell Death Pathways and Cell Metabolism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simone Fulda

2013-01-01

Full Text Available While necroptosis has for long been viewed as an accidental mode of cell death triggered by physical or chemical damage, it has become clear over the last years that necroptosis can also represent a programmed form of cell death in mammalian cells. Key discoveries in the field of cell death research, including the identification of critical components of the necroptotic machinery, led to a revised concept of cell death signaling programs. Several regulatory check and balances are in place in order to ensure that necroptosis is tightly controlled according to environmental cues and cellular needs. This network of regulatory mechanisms includes metabolic pathways, especially those linked to mitochondrial signaling events. A better understanding of these signal transduction mechanisms will likely contribute to open new avenues to exploit our knowledge on the regulation of necroptosis signaling for therapeutic application in the treatment of human diseases.

Distribution of events of positive selection and population differentiation in a metabolic pathway: the case of asparagine N-glycosylation

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Dall’Olio Giovanni

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Asparagine N-Glycosylation is one of the most important forms of protein post-translational modification in eukaryotes. This metabolic pathway can be subdivided into two parts: an upstream sub-pathway required for achieving proper folding for most of the proteins synthesized in the secretory pathway, and a downstream sub-pathway required to give variability to trans-membrane proteins, and involved in adaptation to the environment and innate immunity. Here we analyze the nucleotide variability of the genes of this pathway in human populations, identifying which genes show greater population differentiation and which genes show signatures of recent positive selection. We also compare how these signals are distributed between the upstream and the downstream parts of the pathway, with the aim of exploring how forces of population differentiation and positive selection vary among genes involved in the same metabolic pathway but subject to different functional constraints. Results Our results show that genes in the downstream part of the pathway are more likely to show a signature of population differentiation, while events of positive selection are equally distributed among the two parts of the pathway. Moreover, events of positive selection are frequent on genes that are known to be at bifurcation points, and that are identified as being in key position by a network-level analysis such as MGAT3 and GCS1. Conclusions These findings indicate that the upstream part of the Asparagine N-Glycosylation pathway has lower diversity among populations, while the downstream part is freer to tolerate diversity among populations. Moreover, the distribution of signatures of population differentiation and positive selection can change between parts of a pathway, especially between parts that are exposed to different functional constraints. Our results support the hypothesis that genes involved in constitutive processes can be expected to show

Two Distinct Pathways for Metabolism of Theophylline and Caffeine Are Coexpressed in Pseudomonas putida CBB5▿ †

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Chi Li; Louie, Tai Man; Summers, Ryan; Kale, Yogesh; Gopishetty, Sridhar; Subramanian, Mani

2009-01-01

Pseudomonas putida CBB5 was isolated from soil by enrichment on caffeine. This strain used not only caffeine, theobromine, paraxanthine, and 7-methylxanthine as sole carbon and nitrogen sources but also theophylline and 3-methylxanthine. Analyses of metabolites in spent media and resting cell suspensions confirmed that CBB5 initially N demethylated theophylline via a hitherto unreported pathway to 1- and 3-methylxanthines. NAD(P)H-dependent conversion of theophylline to 1- and 3-methylxanthines was also detected in the crude cell extracts of theophylline-grown CBB5. 1-Methylxanthine and 3-methylxanthine were subsequently N demethylated to xanthine. CBB5 also oxidized theophylline and 1- and 3-methylxanthines to 1,3-dimethyluric acid and 1- and 3-methyluric acids, respectively. However, these methyluric acids were not metabolized further. A broad-substrate-range xanthine-oxidizing enzyme was responsible for the formation of these methyluric acids. In contrast, CBB5 metabolized caffeine to theobromine (major metabolite) and paraxanthine (minor metabolite). These dimethylxanthines were further N demethylated to xanthine via 7-methylxanthine. Theobromine-, paraxanthine-, and 7-methylxanthine-grown cells also metabolized all of the methylxanthines mentioned above via the same pathway. Thus, the theophylline and caffeine N-demethylation pathways converged at xanthine via different methylxanthine intermediates. Xanthine was eventually oxidized to uric acid. Enzymes involved in theophylline and caffeine degradation were coexpressed when CBB5 was grown on theophylline or on caffeine or its metabolites. However, 3-methylxanthine-grown CBB5 cells did not metabolize caffeine, whereas theophylline was metabolized at much reduced levels to only methyluric acids. To our knowledge, this is the first report of theophylline N demethylation and coexpression of distinct pathways for caffeine and theophylline degradation in bacteria. PMID:19447909

NIH Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Centers: the power of centralized phenotyping.

Science.gov (United States)

Laughlin, Maren R; Lloyd, K C Kent; Cline, Gary W; Wasserman, David H

2012-10-01

The Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Centers (MMPCs) were founded in 2001 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance biomedical research by providing the scientific community with standardized, high-quality phenotyping services for mouse models of diabetes, obesity, and their complications. The intent is to allow researchers to take optimum advantage of the many new mouse models produced in labs and in high-throughput public efforts. The six MMPCs are located at universities around the country and perform complex metabolic tests in intact mice and hormone and analyte assays in tissues on a fee-for-service basis. Testing is subsidized by the NIH in order to reduce the barriers for mouse researchers. Although data derived from these tests belong to the researcher submitting mice or tissues, these data are archived after publication in a public database run by the MMPC Coordinating and Bioinformatics Unit. It is hoped that data from experiments performed in many mouse models of metabolic diseases, using standard protocols, will be useful in understanding the nature of these complex disorders. The current areas of expertise include energy balance and body composition, insulin action and secretion, whole-body and tissue carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, cardiovascular and renal function, and metabolic pathway kinetics. In addition to providing services, the MMPC staff provides expertise and advice to researchers, and works to develop and refine test protocols to best meet the community's needs in light of current scientific developments. Test technology is disseminated by publications and through annual courses.

Contribution of glycogen in supporting axon conduction in the peripheral and central nervous systems: the role of lactate

OpenAIRE

Angus M Brown; Angus M Brown; Tom W Chambers; Timothy P Daly; Adam eHockley

2014-01-01

The role of glycogen in the central nervous system is intimately linked with the glycolytic pathway. Glycogen is synthesized from glucose, the primary substrate for glycolysis, and degraded to glucose-6-phosphate. The metabolic cost of shunting glucose via glycogen exceeds that of simple phosphorylation of glucose to glucose-6-phosphate by hexokinase; thus, there must be a metabolic advantage in utilizing this shunt pathway. The dogmatic view of glycogen as a storage depot persists, based on ...

Glycinergic Pathways of the Central Auditory System and Adjacent Reticular Formation of the Rat.

Science.gov (United States)

Hunter, Chyren

The development of techniques to visualize and identify specific transmitters of neuronal circuits has stimulated work on the characterization of pathways in the rat central nervous system that utilize the inhibitory amino acid glycine as its neurotransmitter. Glycine is a major inhibitory transmitter in the spinal cord and brainstem of vertebrates where it satisfies the major criteria for neurotransmitter action. Some of these characteristics are: uneven distribution in brain, high affinity reuptake mechanisms, inhibitory neurophysiological actions on certain neuronal populations, uneven receptor distribution and the specific antagonism of its actions by the convulsant alkaloid strychnine. Behaviorally, antagonism of glycinergic neurotransmission in the medullary reticular formation is linked to the development of myoclonus and seizures which may be initiated by auditory as well as other stimuli. In the present study, decreases in the concentration of glycine as well as the density of glycine receptors in the medulla with aging were found and may be responsible for the lowered threshold for strychnine seizures observed in older rats. Neuroanatomical pathways in the central auditory system and medullary and pontine reticular formation (RF) were investigated using retrograde transport of tritiated glycine to identify glycinergic pathways; immunohistochemical techniques were used to corroborate the location of glycine neurons. Within the central auditory system, retrograde transport studies using tritiated glycine demonstrated an ipsilateral glycinergic pathway linking nuclei of the ascending auditory system. This pathway has its cell bodies in the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB) and projects to the ventrocaudal division of the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (VLL). Collaterals of this glycinergic projection terminate in the ipsilateral lateral superior olive (LSO). Other glycinergic pathways found were afferent to the VLL and have their origin

Regional cerebral glucose metabolic changes in oculopalatal myoclonus: implication for neural pathways, underlying the disorder

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cho, Sang Soo; Moon, So Young; Kim, Ji Soo; Kim, Sang Eun [College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2004-07-01

Palatal myoclonus (PM) is characterized by rhythmic involuntary jerky movements of the soft palate of the throat. When associated with eye movements, it is called oculopalatal myoclonus (OPM). Ordinary PM is characterized by hypertrophic olivary degeneration, a trans-synaptic degeneration following loss of neuronal input to the inferior olivary nucleus due to an interruption of the Guillain-Mollaret triangle usually by a hemorrhage. However, the neural pathways underlying the disorder are uncertain. In an attempt to understand the pathologic neural pathways, we examined the metabolic correlates of this tremulous condition. Brain FDG PET scans were acquired in 8 patients with OPM (age, 49.9{+-}4.6 y: all males: 7 with pontine hemorrhage, 1 with diffuse brainstem infarction) and age-matched 50 healthy males (age, 50.7{+-} 9.0) and the regional glucose metabolism compared using SPM99. For group analysis, the hemispheres containing lesions were assigned to the right side of the brain. Patients with OPM had significant hypometabolism in the ipsilateral (to the lesion) brainstem and superior temporal and parahippocampal gyri (P < 0.05 corrected, k = 100). By contrast, there was significant hypermetabolism in the contralateral middle and inferior temporal gyri, thalamus, middle frontal gyrus and precuneus (P < 0.05 corrected, k=l00). Our data demonstrate the distinct metabolic changes between several ipsilateral and contralateral brain regions (hypometabolism vs. hypermetabolism) in patients with OPM. This may provide clues for understanding the neural pathways underlying the disorder.

Regional cerebral glucose metabolic changes in oculopalatal myoclonus: implication for neural pathways, underlying the disorder

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Sang Soo; Moon, So Young; Kim, Ji Soo; Kim, Sang Eun

2004-01-01

Palatal myoclonus (PM) is characterized by rhythmic involuntary jerky movements of the soft palate of the throat. When associated with eye movements, it is called oculopalatal myoclonus (OPM). Ordinary PM is characterized by hypertrophic olivary degeneration, a trans-synaptic degeneration following loss of neuronal input to the inferior olivary nucleus due to an interruption of the Guillain-Mollaret triangle usually by a hemorrhage. However, the neural pathways underlying the disorder are uncertain. In an attempt to understand the pathologic neural pathways, we examined the metabolic correlates of this tremulous condition. Brain FDG PET scans were acquired in 8 patients with OPM (age, 49.9±4.6 y: all males: 7 with pontine hemorrhage, 1 with diffuse brainstem infarction) and age-matched 50 healthy males (age, 50.7± 9.0) and the regional glucose metabolism compared using SPM99. For group analysis, the hemispheres containing lesions were assigned to the right side of the brain. Patients with OPM had significant hypometabolism in the ipsilateral (to the lesion) brainstem and superior temporal and parahippocampal gyri (P < 0.05 corrected, k = 100). By contrast, there was significant hypermetabolism in the contralateral middle and inferior temporal gyri, thalamus, middle frontal gyrus and precuneus (P < 0.05 corrected, k=l00). Our data demonstrate the distinct metabolic changes between several ipsilateral and contralateral brain regions (hypometabolism vs. hypermetabolism) in patients with OPM. This may provide clues for understanding the neural pathways underlying the disorder

Induction of autophagy by ARHI (DIRAS3) alters fundamental metabolic pathways in ovarian cancer models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ornelas, Argentina; McCullough, Christopher R.; Lu, Zhen; Zacharias, Niki M.; Kelderhouse, Lindsay E.; Gray, Joshua; Yang, Hailing; Engel, Brian J.; Wang, Yan; Mao, Weiqun; Sutton, Margie N.; Bhattacharya, Pratip K.; Bast, Robert C. Jr.; Millward, Steven W.

2016-01-01

Autophagy is a bulk catabolic process that modulates tumorigenesis, therapeutic resistance, and dormancy. The tumor suppressor ARHI (DIRAS3) is a potent inducer of autophagy and its expression results in necroptotic cell death in vitro and tumor dormancy in vivo. ARHI is down-regulated or lost in over 60 % of primary ovarian tumors yet is dramatically up-regulated in metastatic disease. The metabolic changes that occur during ARHI induction and their role in modulating death and dormancy are unknown. We employed Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)-based metabolomic strategies to characterize changes in key metabolic pathways in both cell culture and xenograft models of ARHI expression and autophagy. These pathways were further interrogated by cell-based immunofluorescence imaging, tracer uptake studies, targeted metabolic inhibition, and in vivo PET/CT imaging. Induction of ARHI in cell culture models resulted in an autophagy-dependent increase in lactate production along with increased glucose uptake and enhanced sensitivity to glycolytic inhibitors. Increased uptake of glutamine was also dependent on autophagy and dramatically sensitized cultured ARHI-expressing ovarian cancer cell lines to glutaminase inhibition. Induction of ARHI resulted in a reduction in mitochondrial respiration, decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, and decreased Tom20 staining suggesting an ARHI-dependent loss of mitochondrial function. ARHI induction in mouse xenograft models resulted in an increase in free amino acids, a transient increase in [ 18 F]-FDG uptake, and significantly altered choline metabolism. ARHI expression has previously been shown to trigger autophagy-associated necroptosis in cell culture. In this study, we have demonstrated that ARHI expression results in decreased cellular ATP/ADP, increased oxidative stress, and decreased mitochondrial function. While this bioenergetic shock is consistent with programmed necrosis, our data indicates that the accompanying up

PPAR ligands improve impaired metabolic pathways in fetal hearts of diabetic rats.

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Kurtz, Melisa; Capobianco, Evangelina; Martinez, Nora; Roberti, Sabrina Lorena; Arany, Edith; Jawerbaum, Alicia

2014-10-01

In maternal diabetes, the fetal heart can be structurally and functionally affected. Maternal diets enriched in certain unsaturated fatty acids can activate the nuclear receptors peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) and regulate metabolic and anti-inflammatory pathways during development. Our aim was to investigate whether PPARα expression, lipid metabolism, lipoperoxidation, and nitric oxide (NO) production are altered in the fetal hearts of diabetic rats, and to analyze the putative effects of in vivo PPAR activation on these parameters. We found decreased PPARα expression in the hearts of male but not female fetuses of diabetic rats when compared with controls. Fetal treatments with the PPARα ligand leukotriene B4 upregulated the expression of PPARα and target genes involved in fatty acid oxidation in the fetal hearts. Increased concentrations of triglycerides, cholesterol, and phospholipids were found in the hearts of fetuses of diabetic rats. Maternal treatments with diets supplemented with 6% olive oil or 6% safflower oil, enriched in unsaturated fatty acids that can activate PPARs, led to few changes in lipid concentrations, but up-regulated PPARα expression in fetal hearts. NO production, which was increased in the hearts of male and female fetuses in the diabetic group, and lipoperoxidation, which was increased in the hearts of male fetuses in the diabetic group, was reduced by the maternal treatments supplemented with safflower oil. In conclusion, impaired PPARα expression, altered lipid metabolism, and increased oxidative and nitridergic pathways were evidenced in hearts of fetuses of diabetic rats and were regulated in a gender-dependent manner by treatments enriched with PPAR ligands. © 2014 Society for Endocrinology.

The Glycerate and Phosphorylated Pathways of Serine Synthesis in Plants: The Branches of Plant Glycolysis Linking Carbon and Nitrogen Metabolism.

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Igamberdiev, Abir U; Kleczkowski, Leszek A

2018-01-01

Serine metabolism in plants has been studied mostly in relation to photorespiration where serine is formed from two molecules of glycine. However, two other pathways of serine formation operate in plants and represent the branches of glycolysis diverging at the level of 3-phosphoglyceric acid. One branch (the glycerate - serine pathway) is initiated in the cytosol and involves glycerate formation from 3-phosphoglycerate, while the other (the phosphorylated serine pathway) operates in plastids and forms phosphohydroxypyruvate as an intermediate. Serine formed in these pathways becomes a precursor of glycine, formate and glycolate accumulating in stress conditions. The pathways can be linked to GABA shunt via transamination reactions and via participation of the same reductase for both glyoxylate and succinic semialdehyde. In this review paper we present a hypothesis of the regulation of redox balance in stressed plant cells via participation of the reactions associated with glycerate and phosphorylated serine pathways. We consider these pathways as important processes linking carbon and nitrogen metabolism and maintaining cellular redox and energy levels in stress conditions.

Metatranscriptomic analysis of diverse microbial communities reveals core metabolic pathways and microbiome-specific functionality.

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Jiang, Yue; Xiong, Xuejian; Danska, Jayne; Parkinson, John

2016-01-12

Metatranscriptomics is emerging as a powerful technology for the functional characterization of complex microbial communities (microbiomes). Use of unbiased RNA-sequencing can reveal both the taxonomic composition and active biochemical functions of a complex microbial community. However, the lack of established reference genomes, computational tools and pipelines make analysis and interpretation of these datasets challenging. Systematic studies that compare data across microbiomes are needed to demonstrate the ability of such pipelines to deliver biologically meaningful insights on microbiome function. Here, we apply a standardized analytical pipeline to perform a comparative analysis of metatranscriptomic data from diverse microbial communities derived from mouse large intestine, cow rumen, kimchi culture, deep-sea thermal vent and permafrost. Sequence similarity searches allowed annotation of 19 to 76% of putative messenger RNA (mRNA) reads, with the highest frequency in the kimchi dataset due to its relatively low complexity and availability of closely related reference genomes. Metatranscriptomic datasets exhibited distinct taxonomic and functional signatures. From a metabolic perspective, we identified a common core of enzymes involved in amino acid, energy and nucleotide metabolism and also identified microbiome-specific pathways such as phosphonate metabolism (deep sea) and glycan degradation pathways (cow rumen). Integrating taxonomic and functional annotations within a novel visualization framework revealed the contribution of different taxa to metabolic pathways, allowing the identification of taxa that contribute unique functions. The application of a single, standard pipeline confirms that the rich taxonomic and functional diversity observed across microbiomes is not simply an artefact of different analysis pipelines but instead reflects distinct environmental influences. At the same time, our findings show how microbiome complexity and availability of

Pathways from and Crises after Communism: the Case of Central Eastern Europe

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SZELENYI, Ivan

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The transition from socialist redistributive economy to capitalist markets has proved to be a rockier road that anticipated. The degree and character of difficulties that the countries faced during the transition depended on the nature of the pathways taken. In this paper I distinguish three major trajectories various countries followed: Central European neo-liberalism; post USSR neo-patrimonial regime and the East Asian (Chinese and Vietnamese transformation from below. Rather than distinguishing the “right way” from the “wrong way” I explore what the different costs and benefits of the various pathways were at various stages of the transformation.

Metabolic pathways of decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE209) in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) via intraperitoneal injection.

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Feng, Chenglian; Xu, Yiping; Zha, Jinmiao; Li, Jian; Wu, Fengchang; Wang, Zijian

2015-03-01

Decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE209) was of great concern due to its biotransformation in different organisms. However, most studies devoted to the metabolic intermediates of BDE209, less has been done on the metabolic pathways in vivo, especially on the relationships among debrominated-BDEs, OH-BDEs and MeO-BDEs. In this study, the metabolic pathways and intermediates of BDE209 in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were investigated, and the time-dependent transformations of the metabolites were also examined. The primary debrominated metabolites were BDE47, 49, 99, 197, 207; the main MeO-BDEs were MeO-BDE47, MeO-BDE68 and MeO-BDE100; OH-BDEs were primarily composed of OH-BDE28 and OH-BDE42. From the time-dependent and dose-effect relationships, the debromination should be followed by hydroxylation, and then by methoxylation. The increasing in body burden of MeO-BDEs corresponded to the decreasing of OH-BDEs, which could indirectly prove the inter-conversion between OH-BDEs and MeO-BDEs. This study would motivate the future research of toxicological mechanisms of BDEs. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Deep proteomics of mouse skeletal muscle enables quantitation of protein isoforms, metabolic pathways, and transcription factors.

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Deshmukh, Atul S; Murgia, Marta; Nagaraj, Nagarjuna; Treebak, Jonas T; Cox, Jürgen; Mann, Matthias

2015-04-01

Skeletal muscle constitutes 40% of individual body mass and plays vital roles in locomotion and whole-body metabolism. Proteomics of skeletal muscle is challenging because of highly abundant contractile proteins that interfere with detection of regulatory proteins. Using a state-of-the art MS workflow and a strategy to map identifications from the C2C12 cell line model to tissues, we identified a total of 10,218 proteins, including skeletal muscle specific transcription factors like myod1 and myogenin and circadian clock proteins. We obtain absolute abundances for proteins expressed in a muscle cell line and skeletal muscle, which should serve as a valuable resource. Quantitation of protein isoforms of glucose uptake signaling pathways and in glucose and lipid metabolic pathways provides a detailed metabolic map of the cell line compared with tissue. This revealed unexpectedly complex regulation of AMP-activated protein kinase and insulin signaling in muscle tissue at the level of enzyme isoforms. © 2015 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Pulmonary Ozone Exposure Alters Essential Metabolic Pathways involved in Glucose Homeostasis in the Liver

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Pulmonary Ozone Exposure Alters Essential Metabolic Pathways involved in Glucose Homeostasis in the Liver D.B. Johnson, 1 W.O. Ward, 2 V.L. Bass, 2 M.C.J. Schladweiler, 2A.D. Ledbetter, 2 D. Andrews, and U.P. Kodavanti 2 1 Curriculum in Toxicology, UNC School of Medicine, Cha...

Metabolic reconstruction of Setaria italica: a systems biology approach for integrating tissue-specific omics and pathway analysis of bioenergy grasses

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Cristiana Gomes De Oliveira Dal'molin

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The urgent need for major gains in industrial crops productivity and in biofuel production from bioenergy grasses have reinforced attention on understanding C4 photosynthesis. Systems biology studies of C4 model plants may reveal important features of C4 metabolism. Here we chose foxtail millet (Setaria italica, as a C4 model plant and developed protocols to perform systems biology studies. As part of the systems approach, we have developed and used a genome-scale metabolic reconstruction in combination with the use of multi-omics technologies to gain more insights into the metabolism of S.italica. mRNA, protein and metabolite abundances, were measured in mature and immature stem/leaf phytomers and the multi-omics data were integrated into the metabolic reconstruction framework to capture key metabolic features in different developmental stages of the plant. RNA-Seq reads were mapped to the S. italica resulting for 83% coverage of the protein coding genes of S. italica. Besides revealing similarities and differences in central metabolism of mature and immature tissues, transcriptome analysis indicates significant gene expression of two malic enzyme isoforms (NADP- ME and NAD-ME. Although much greater expression levels of NADP-ME genes are observed and confirmed by the correspondent protein abundances in the samples, the expression of multiple genes combined to the significant abundance of metabolites that participates in C4 metabolism of NAD-ME and NADP-ME subtypes suggest that S. italica may use mixed decarboxylation modes of C4 photosynthetic pathways under different plant developmental stages. The overall analysis also indicates different levels of regulation in mature and immature tissues in carbon fixation, glycolysis, TCA cycle, amino acids, fatty acids, lignin and cellulose syntheses. Altogether, the multi-omics analysis reveals different biological entities and their interrelation and regulation over plant development. With this study

Metabolic Reconstruction of Setaria italica: A Systems Biology Approach for Integrating Tissue-Specific Omics and Pathway Analysis of Bioenergy Grasses.

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de Oliveira Dal'Molin, Cristiana G; Orellana, Camila; Gebbie, Leigh; Steen, Jennifer; Hodson, Mark P; Chrysanthopoulos, Panagiotis; Plan, Manuel R; McQualter, Richard; Palfreyman, Robin W; Nielsen, Lars K

2016-01-01

The urgent need for major gains in industrial crops productivity and in biofuel production from bioenergy grasses have reinforced attention on understanding C4 photosynthesis. Systems biology studies of C4 model plants may reveal important features of C4 metabolism. Here we chose foxtail millet (Setaria italica), as a C4 model plant and developed protocols to perform systems biology studies. As part of the systems approach, we have developed and used a genome-scale metabolic reconstruction in combination with the use of multi-omics technologies to gain more insights into the metabolism of S. italica. mRNA, protein, and metabolite abundances, were measured in mature and immature stem/leaf phytomers, and the multi-omics data were integrated into the metabolic reconstruction framework to capture key metabolic features in different developmental stages of the plant. RNA-Seq reads were mapped to the S. italica resulting for 83% coverage of the protein coding genes of S. italica. Besides revealing similarities and differences in central metabolism of mature and immature tissues, transcriptome analysis indicates significant gene expression of two malic enzyme isoforms (NADP- ME and NAD-ME). Although much greater expression levels of NADP-ME genes are observed and confirmed by the correspondent protein abundances in the samples, the expression of multiple genes combined to the significant abundance of metabolites that participates in C4 metabolism of NAD-ME and NADP-ME subtypes suggest that S. italica may use mixed decarboxylation modes of C4 photosynthetic pathways under different plant developmental stages. The overall analysis also indicates different levels of regulation in mature and immature tissues in carbon fixation, glycolysis, TCA cycle, amino acids, fatty acids, lignin, and cellulose syntheses. Altogether, the multi-omics analysis reveals different biological entities and their interrelation and regulation over plant development. With this study, we demonstrated

Danqi Pill regulates lipid metabolism disorder induced by myocardial ischemia through FATP-CPTI pathway.

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Wang, Yong; Li, Chun; Wang, Qiyan; Shi, Tianjiao; Wang, Jing; Chen, Hui; Wu, Yan; Han, Jing; Guo, Shuzhen; Wang, Yuanyuan; Wang, Wei

2015-02-21

Danqi Pill (DQP), which contains Chinese herbs Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge and Panax notoginseng, is widely used in the treatment of myocardial ischemia (MI) in China. Its regulatory effects on MI-associated lipid metabolism disorders haven't been comprehensively studied so far. We aimed to systematically investigate the regulatory mechanism of DQP on myocardial ischemia-induced lipid metabolism disorders. Myocardial ischemia rat model was induced by left anterior descending coronary artery ligation. The rat models were divided into three groups: model group with administration of normal saline, study group with administration of DanQi aqueous solution (1.5 mg/kg) and positive-control group with administration of pravastatin aqueous solution (1.2 mg/kg). In addition, another sham-operated group was set as negative control. At 28 days after treatment, cardiac function and degree of lipid metabolism disorders in rats of different groups were measured. Plasma lipid disorders were induced by myocardial ischemia, with manifestation of up-regulation of triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), Apolipoprotein B (Apo-B) and 3-hydroxy-3-methyl glutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR). DQP could down-regulate the levels of TG, LDL, Apo-B and HMGCR. The Lipid transport pathway, fatty acids transport protein (FATP) and Carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPTI) were down-regulated in model group. DQP could improve plasma lipid metabolism by up-regulating this lipid transport pathway. The transcription factors peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) and retinoid X receptors (RXRs), which regulate lipid metabolism, were also up-regulated by DQP. Furthermore, DQP was able to improve heart function and up-regulate ejection fraction (EF) by increasing the cardiac diastolic volume. Our study reveals that DQP would be an ideal alternative drug for the treatment of dyslipidemia which is induced by myocardial ischemia.

Regulatory network of secondary metabolism in Brassica rapa: insight into the glucosinolate pathway.

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Dunia Pino Del Carpio

Full Text Available Brassica rapa studies towards metabolic variation have largely been focused on the profiling of the diversity of metabolic compounds in specific crop types or regional varieties, but none aimed to identify genes with regulatory function in metabolite composition. Here we followed a genetical genomics approach to identify regulatory genes for six biosynthetic pathways of health-related phytochemicals, i.e carotenoids, tocopherols, folates, glucosinolates, flavonoids and phenylpropanoids. Leaves from six weeks-old plants of a Brassica rapa doubled haploid population, consisting of 92 genotypes, were profiled for their secondary metabolite composition, using both targeted and LC-MS-based untargeted metabolomics approaches. Furthermore, the same population was profiled for transcript variation using a microarray containing EST sequences mainly derived from three Brassica species: B. napus, B. rapa and B. oleracea. The biochemical pathway analysis was based on the network analyses of both metabolite QTLs (mQTLs and transcript QTLs (eQTLs. Co-localization of mQTLs and eQTLs lead to the identification of candidate regulatory genes involved in the biosynthesis of carotenoids, tocopherols and glucosinolates. We subsequently focused on the well-characterized glucosinolate pathway and revealed two hotspots of co-localization of eQTLs with mQTLs in linkage groups A03 and A09. Our results indicate that such a large-scale genetical genomics approach combining transcriptomics and metabolomics data can provide new insights into the genetic regulation of metabolite composition of Brassica vegetables.

Cancer-related marketing centrality motifs acting as pivot units in the human signaling network and mediating cross-talk between biological pathways.

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Li, Wan; Chen, Lina; Li, Xia; Jia, Xu; Feng, Chenchen; Zhang, Liangcai; He, Weiming; Lv, Junjie; He, Yuehan; Li, Weiguo; Qu, Xiaoli; Zhou, Yanyan; Shi, Yuchen

2013-12-01

Network motifs in central positions are considered to not only have more in-coming and out-going connections but are also localized in an area where more paths reach the networks. These central motifs have been extensively investigated to determine their consistent functions or associations with specific function categories. However, their functional potentials in the maintenance of cross-talk between different functional communities are unclear. In this paper, we constructed an integrated human signaling network from the Pathway Interaction Database. We identified 39 essential cancer-related motifs in central roles, which we called cancer-related marketing centrality motifs, using combined centrality indices on the system level. Our results demonstrated that these cancer-related marketing centrality motifs were pivotal units in the signaling network, and could mediate cross-talk between 61 biological pathways (25 could be mediated by one motif on average), most of which were cancer-related pathways. Further analysis showed that molecules of most marketing centrality motifs were in the same or adjacent subcellular localizations, such as the motif containing PI3K, PDK1 and AKT1 in the plasma membrane, to mediate signal transduction between 32 cancer-related pathways. Finally, we analyzed the pivotal roles of cancer genes in these marketing centrality motifs in the pathogenesis of cancers, and found that non-cancer genes were potential cancer-related genes.

Impact of Hypoglycemia on Brain Metabolism During Diabetes.

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Rehni, Ashish K; Dave, Kunjan R

2018-04-10

Diabetes is a metabolic disease afflicting millions of people worldwide. A substantial fraction of world's total healthcare expenditure is spent on treating diabetes. Hypoglycemia is a serious consequence of anti-diabetic drug therapy, because it induces metabolic alterations in the brain. Metabolic alterations are one of the central mechanisms mediating hypoglycemia-related functional changes in the brain. Acute, chronic, and/or recurrent hypoglycemia modulate multiple metabolic pathways, and exposure to hypoglycemia increases consumption of alternate respiratory substrates such as ketone bodies, glycogen, and monocarboxylates in the brain. The aim of this review is to discuss hypoglycemia-induced metabolic alterations in the brain in glucose counterregulation, uptake, utilization and metabolism, cellular respiration, amino acid and lipid metabolism, and the significance of other sources of energy. The present review summarizes information on hypoglycemia-induced metabolic changes in the brain of diabetic and non-diabetic subjects and the manner in which they may affect brain function.

Identification and functional verification of archaeal-type phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, a missing link in archaeal central carbohydrate metabolism.

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Ettema, Thijs J G; Makarova, Kira S; Jellema, Gera L; Gierman, Hinco J; Koonin, Eugene V; Huynen, Martijn A; de Vos, Willem M; van der Oost, John

2004-11-01

Despite the fact that phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) activity has been measured and in some cases even purified from some Archaea, the gene responsible for this activity has not been elucidated. Using sensitive sequence comparison methods, we detected a highly conserved, uncharacterized archaeal gene family that is distantly related to the catalytic core of the canonical PEPC. To verify the predicted function of this archaeal gene family, we cloned a representative from the hyperthermophilic acidophile Sulfolobus solfataricus and functionally produced the corresponding enzyme as a fusion with the Escherichia coli maltose-binding protein. The purified fusion protein indeed displayed highly thermostable PEPC activity. The structural and biochemical properties of the characterized archaeal-type PEPC (atPEPC) from S. solfataricus are in good agreement with previously reported biochemical analyses of other archaeal PEPC enzymes. The newly identified atPEPC, with its distinct properties, constitutes yet another example of the versatility of the enzymes of the central carbon metabolic pathways in the archaeal domain.

Absolute quantitative profiling of the key metabolic pathways in slow and fast skeletal muscle

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rakus, Dariusz; Gizak, Agnieszka; Deshmukh, Atul

2015-01-01

. Proteomic analysis of mouse slow and fast muscles allowed estimation of the titers of enzymes involved in the carbohydrate, lipid, and energy metabolism. Notably, we observed that differences observed between the two muscle types occur simultaneously for all proteins involved in a specific process......Slow and fast skeletal muscles are composed of, respectively, mainly oxidative and glycolytic muscle fibers, which are the basic cellular motor units of the motility apparatus. They largely differ in excitability, contraction mechanism, and metabolism. Because of their pivotal role in body motion...... and homeostasis, the skeletal muscles have been extensively studied using biochemical and molecular biology approaches. Here we describe a simple analytical and computational approach to estimate titers of enzymes of basic metabolic pathways and proteins of the contractile machinery in the skeletal muscles...

Elucidation of primary metabolic pathways in Aspergillus species: orphaned research in characterizing orphan genes.

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Andersen, Mikael Rørdam

2014-11-01

Primary metabolism affects all phenotypical traits of filamentous fungi. Particular examples include reacting to extracellular stimuli, producing precursor molecules required for cell division and morphological changes as well as providing monomer building blocks for production of secondary metabolites and extracellular enzymes. In this review, all annotated genes from four Aspergillus species have been examined. In this process, it becomes evident that 80-96% of the genes (depending on the species) are still without verified function. A significant proportion of the genes with verified metabolic functions are assigned to secondary or extracellular metabolism, leaving only 2-4% of the annotated genes within primary metabolism. It is clear that primary metabolism has not received the same attention in the post-genomic area as many other research areas--despite its role at the very centre of cellular function. However, several methods can be employed to use the metabolic networks in tandem with comparative genomics to accelerate functional assignment of genes in primary metabolism. In particular, gaps in metabolic pathways can be used to assign functions to orphan genes. In this review, applications of this from the Aspergillus genes will be examined, and it is proposed that, where feasible, this should be a standard part of functional annotation of fungal genomes. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

Role of the mixed-lineage protein kinase pathway in the metabolic stress response to obesity

OpenAIRE

Kant, Shashi; Barrett, Tamera; Vertii, Anastassiia; Noh, Yun Hee; Jung, Dae Young; Kim, Jason K.; Davis, Roger J.

2013-01-01

Saturated free fatty acid (FFA) is implicated in the metabolic response to obesity. In vitro studies indicate that FFA signaling may be mediated by the mixed-lineage protein kinase (MLK) pathway that activates cJun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK). Here, we examined the role of the MLK pathway in vivo using a mouse model of diet-induced obesity. The ubiquitously expressed MLK2 and MLK3 protein kinases have partially redundant functions. We therefore compared wild-type and compound mutant mice that l...

Conversion of KEGG metabolic pathways to SBGN maps including automatic layout.

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Czauderna, Tobias; Wybrow, Michael; Marriott, Kim; Schreiber, Falk

2013-08-16

Biologists make frequent use of databases containing large and complex biological networks. One popular database is the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) which uses its own graphical representation and manual layout for pathways. While some general drawing conventions exist for biological networks, arbitrary graphical representations are very common. Recently, a new standard has been established for displaying biological processes, the Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN), which aims to unify the look of such maps. Ideally, online repositories such as KEGG would automatically provide networks in a variety of notations including SBGN. Unfortunately, this is non-trivial, since converting between notations may add, remove or otherwise alter map elements so that the existing layout cannot be simply reused. Here we describe a methodology for automatic translation of KEGG metabolic pathways into the SBGN format. We infer important properties of the KEGG layout and treat these as layout constraints that are maintained during the conversion to SBGN maps. This allows for the drawing and layout conventions of SBGN to be followed while creating maps that are still recognizably the original KEGG pathways. This article details the steps in this process and provides examples of the final result.

Linking metabolic QTLs with network and cis-eQTLs controlling biosynthetic pathways.

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Adam M Wentzell

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Phenotypic variation between individuals of a species is often under quantitative genetic control. Genomic analysis of gene expression polymorphisms between individuals is rapidly gaining popularity as a way to query the underlying mechanistic causes of variation between individuals. However, there is little direct evidence of a linkage between global gene expression polymorphisms and phenotypic consequences. In this report, we have mapped quantitative trait loci (QTLs-controlling glucosinolate content in a population of 403 Arabidopsis Bay x Sha recombinant inbred lines, 211 of which were previously used to identify expression QTLs controlling the transcript levels of biosynthetic genes. In a comparative study, we have directly tested two plant biosynthetic pathways for association between polymorphisms controlling biosynthetic gene transcripts and the resulting metabolites within the Arabidopsis Bay x Sha recombinant inbred line population. In this analysis, all loci controlling expression variation also affected the accumulation of the resulting metabolites. In addition, epistasis was detected more frequently for metabolic traits compared to transcript traits, even when both traits showed similar distributions. An analysis of candidate genes for QTL-controlling networks of transcripts and metabolites suggested that the controlling factors are a mix of enzymes and regulatory factors. This analysis showed that regulatory connections can feedback from metabolism to transcripts. Surprisingly, the most likely major regulator of both transcript level for nearly the entire pathway and aliphatic glucosinolate accumulation is variation in the last enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway, AOP2. This suggests that natural variation in transcripts may significantly impact phenotypic variation, but that natural variation in metabolites or their enzymatic loci can feed back to affect the transcripts.

Altered Levels of Aroma and Volatiles by Metabolic Engineering of Shikimate Pathway Genes in Tomato Fruits

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Vered Tzin

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum fruit is an excellent source of antioxidants, dietary fibers, minerals and vitamins and therefore has been referred to as a “functional food”. Ripe tomato fruits produce a large number of specialized metabolites including volatile organic compounds. These volatiles serve as key components of the tomato fruit flavor, participate in plant pathogen and herbivore defense, and are used to attract seed dispersers. A major class of specialized metabolites is derived from the shikimate pathway followed by aromatic amino acid biosynthesis of phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan. We attempted to modify tomato fruit flavor by overexpressing key regulatory genes in the shikimate pathway. Bacterial genes encoding feedback-insensitive variants of 3-Deoxy-D-Arabino-Heptulosonate 7-Phosphate Synthase (DAHPS; AroG209-9 and bi-functional Chorismate Mutase/Prephenate Dehydratase (CM/PDT; PheA12 were expressed under the control of a fruit-specific promoter. We crossed these transgenes to generate tomato plants expressing both the AroG209 and PheA12 genes. Overexpression of the AroG209-9 gene had a dramatic effect on the overall metabolic profile of the fruit, including enhanced levels of multiple volatile and non-volatile metabolites. In contrast, the PheA12 overexpression line exhibited minor metabolic effects compared to the wild type fruit. Co-expression of both the AroG209-9 and PheA12 genes in tomato resulted overall in a similar metabolic effect to that of expressing only the AroG209-9 gene. However, the aroma ranking attributes of the tomato fruits from PheA12//AroG209-9 were unique and different from those of the lines expressing a single gene, suggesting a contribution of the PheA12 gene to the overall metabolic profile. We suggest that expression of bacterial genes encoding feedback-insensitive enzymes of the shikimate pathway in tomato fruits provides a useful metabolic engineering tool for the modification of

The Relationship between Metabolic Syndrome and Osteoporosis: A Review

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Sok Kuan Wong

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Metabolic syndrome (MetS and osteoporosis are two major healthcare problems worldwide. Metabolic syndrome is a constellation of medical conditions consisting of central obesity, hyperglycemia, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, in which each acts on bone tissue in different ways. The growing prevalence of MetS and osteoporosis in the population along with the controversial findings on the relationship between both conditions suggest the importance for further investigation and discussion on this topic. This review aims to assess the available evidence on the effects of each component of MetS on bone metabolism from the conventional to the contemporary. Previous studies suggested that the two conditions shared some common underlying pathways, which include regulation of calcium homeostasis, receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL/receptor activator of the NF-κB (RANK/osteoprotegerin (OPG and Wnt-β-catenin signaling pathways. In conclusion, we suggest that MetS may have a potential role in developing osteoporosis and more studies are necessary to further prove this hypothesis.

The Relationship between Metabolic Syndrome and Osteoporosis: A Review

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Wong, Sok Kuan; Chin, Kok-Yong; Suhaimi, Farihah Hj; Ahmad, Fairus; Ima-Nirwana, Soelaiman

2016-01-01

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) and osteoporosis are two major healthcare problems worldwide. Metabolic syndrome is a constellation of medical conditions consisting of central obesity, hyperglycemia, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, in which each acts on bone tissue in different ways. The growing prevalence of MetS and osteoporosis in the population along with the controversial findings on the relationship between both conditions suggest the importance for further investigation and discussion on this topic. This review aims to assess the available evidence on the effects of each component of MetS on bone metabolism from the conventional to the contemporary. Previous studies suggested that the two conditions shared some common underlying pathways, which include regulation of calcium homeostasis, receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL)/receptor activator of the NF-κB (RANK)/osteoprotegerin (OPG) and Wnt-β-catenin signaling pathways. In conclusion, we suggest that MetS may have a potential role in developing osteoporosis and more studies are necessary to further prove this hypothesis. PMID:27338453

Central Nervous System Infection with Borna Disease Virus Causes Kynurenine Pathway Dysregulation and Neurotoxic Quinolinic Acid Production.

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Formisano, Simone; Hornig, Mady; Yaddanapudi, Kavitha; Vasishtha, Mansi; Parsons, Loren H; Briese, Thomas; Lipkin, W Ian; Williams, Brent L

2017-07-15

Central nervous system infection of neonatal and adult rats with Borna disease virus (BDV) results in neuronal destruction and behavioral abnormalities with differential immune-mediated involvement. Neuroactive metabolites generated from the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan degradation have been implicated in several human neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we report that brain expression of key enzymes in the kynurenine pathway are significantly, but differentially, altered in neonatal and adult rats with BDV infection. Gene expression analysis of rat brains following neonatal infection showed increased expression of kynurenine amino transferase II (KATII) and kynurenine-3-monooxygenase (KMO) enzymes. Additionally, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) expression was only modestly increased in a brain region- and time-dependent manner in neonatally infected rats; however, its expression was highly increased in adult infected rats. The most dramatic impact on gene expression was seen for KMO, whose activity promotes the production of neurotoxic quinolinic acid. KMO expression was persistently elevated in brain regions of both newborn and adult BDV-infected rats, with increases reaching up to 86-fold. KMO protein levels were increased in neonatally infected rats and colocalized with neurons, the primary target cells of BDV infection. Furthermore, quinolinic acid was elevated in neonatally infected rat brains. We further demonstrate increased expression of KATII and KMO, but not IDO, in vitro in BDV-infected C6 astroglioma cells. Our results suggest that BDV directly impacts the kynurenine pathway, an effect that may be exacerbated by inflammatory responses in immunocompetent hosts. Thus, experimental models of BDV infection may provide new tools for discriminating virus-mediated from immune-mediated impacts on the kynurenine pathway and their relative contribution to neurodegeneration. IMPORTANCE BDV causes persistent, noncytopathic infection in vitro yet still elicits

Exacerbation of substrate toxicity by IPTG in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) carrying a synthetic metabolic pathway.

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Dvorak, Pavel; Chrast, Lukas; Nikel, Pablo I; Fedr, Radek; Soucek, Karel; Sedlackova, Miroslava; Chaloupkova, Radka; de Lorenzo, Víctor; Prokop, Zbynek; Damborsky, Jiri

2015-12-21

Heterologous expression systems based on promoters inducible with isopropyl-β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG), e.g., Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) and cognate LacI(Q)/P(lacUV5)-T7 vectors, are commonly used for production of recombinant proteins and metabolic pathways. The applicability of such cell factories is limited by the complex physiological burden imposed by overexpression of the exogenous genes during a bioprocess. This burden originates from a combination of stresses that may include competition for the expression machinery, side-reactions due to the activity of the recombinant proteins, or the toxicity of their substrates, products and intermediates. However, the physiological impact of IPTG-induced conditional expression on the recombinant host under such harsh conditions is often overlooked. The physiological responses to IPTG of the E. coli BL21(DE3) strain and three different recombinants carrying a synthetic metabolic pathway for biodegradation of the toxic anthropogenic pollutant 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) were investigated using plating, flow cytometry, and electron microscopy. Collected data revealed unexpected negative synergistic effect of inducer of the expression system and toxic substrate resulting in pronounced physiological stress. Replacing IPTG with the natural sugar effector lactose greatly reduced such stress, demonstrating that the effect was due to the original inducer's chemical properties. IPTG is not an innocuous inducer; instead, it exacerbates the toxicity of haloalkane substrate and causes appreciable damage to the E. coli BL21(DE3) host, which is already bearing a metabolic burden due to its content of plasmids carrying the genes of the synthetic metabolic pathway. The concentration of IPTG can be effectively tuned to mitigate this negative effect. Importantly, we show that induction with lactose, the natural inducer of P lac , dramatically lightens the burden without reducing the efficiency of the synthetic TCP degradation

Differential effects of Th1, monocyte/macrophage and Th2 cytokine mixtures on early gene expression for molecules associated with metabolism, signaling and regulation in central nervous system mixed glial cell cultures

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Studzinski Diane

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Cytokines secreted by immune cells and activated glia play central roles in both the pathogenesis of and protection from damage to the central nervous system (CNS in multiple sclerosis (MS. Methods We have used gene array analysis to identify the initial direct effects of cytokines on CNS glia by comparing changes in early gene expression in CNS glial cultures treated for 6 hours with cytokines typical of those secreted by Th1 and Th2 lymphocytes and monocyte/macrophages (M/M. Results In two previous papers, we summarized effects of these cytokines on immune-related molecules, and on neural and glial related proteins, including neurotrophins, growth factors and structural proteins. In this paper, we present the effects of the cytokines on molecules involved in metabolism, signaling and regulatory mechanisms in CNS glia. Many of the changes in gene expression were similar to those seen in ischemic preconditioning and in early inflammatory lesions in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE, related to ion homeostasis, mitochondrial function, neurotransmission, vitamin D metabolism and a variety of transcription factors and signaling pathways. Among the most prominent changes, all three cytokine mixtures markedly downregulated the dopamine D3 receptor, while Th1 and Th2 cytokines downregulated neuropeptide Y receptor 5. An unexpected finding was the large number of changes related to lipid metabolism, including several suggesting a switch from diacylglycerol to phosphatidyl inositol mediated signaling pathways. Using QRT-PCR we validated the results for regulation of genes for iNOS, arginase and P glycoprotein/multi-drug resistance protein 1 (MDR1 seen at 6 hours with microarray. Conclusion Each of the three cytokine mixtures differentially regulated gene expression related to metabolism and signaling that may play roles in the pathogenesis of MS, most notably with regard to mitochondrial function and neurotransmitter

Deletion of the Mitochondrial Chaperone TRAP-1 Uncovers Global Reprogramming of Metabolic Networks

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Sofia Lisanti

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Reprogramming of metabolic pathways contributes to human disease, especially cancer, but the regulators of this process are unknown. Here, we have generated a mouse knockout for the mitochondrial chaperone TRAP-1, a regulator of bioenergetics in tumors. TRAP-1−/− mice are viable and showed reduced incidence of age-associated pathologies, including obesity, inflammatory tissue degeneration, dysplasia, and spontaneous tumor formation. This was accompanied by global upregulation of oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis transcriptomes, causing deregulated mitochondrial respiration, oxidative stress, impaired cell proliferation, and a switch to glycolytic metabolism in vivo. These data identify TRAP-1 as a central regulator of mitochondrial bioenergetics, and this pathway could contribute to metabolic rewiring in tumors.

Unique Microbial Diversity and Metabolic Pathway Features of Fermented Vegetables From Hainan, China

OpenAIRE

Qiannan Peng; Shuaiming Jiang; Jieling Chen; Chenchen Ma; Dongxue Huo; Yuyu Shao; Jiachao Zhang; Jiachao Zhang

2018-01-01

Fermented vegetables are typically traditional foods made of fresh vegetables and their juices, which are fermented by beneficial microorganisms. Herein, we applied high-throughput sequencing and culture-dependent technology to describe the diversities of microbiota and identify core microbiota in fermented vegetables from different areas of Hainan Province, and abundant metabolic pathways in the fermented vegetables were simultaneously predicted. At the genus level, Lactobacillus bacteria we...

Bayesian inference of the sites of perturbations in metabolic pathways via Markov chain Monte Carlo

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jayawardhana, Bayu; Kell, Douglas B.; Rattray, Magnus

2008-01-01

Motivation: Genetic modifications or pharmaceutical interventions can influence multiple sites in metabolic pathways, and often these are ‘distant’ from the primary effect. In this regard, the ability to identify target and off-target effects of a specific compound or gene therapy is both a major

Gene-Gene Interactions in the Folate Metabolic Pathway and the Risk of Conotruncal Heart Defects

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Philip J. Lupo

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Conotruncal and related heart defects (CTRD are common, complex malformations. Although there are few established risk factors, there is evidence that genetic variation in the folate metabolic pathway influences CTRD risk. This study was undertaken to assess the association between inherited (i.e., case and maternal gene-gene interactions in this pathway and the risk of CTRD. Case-parent triads (n=727, ascertained from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, were genotyped for ten functional variants of nine folate metabolic genes. Analyses of inherited genotypes were consistent with the previously reported association between MTHFR A1298C and CTRD (adjusted P=.02, but provided no evidence that CTRD was associated with inherited gene-gene interactions. Analyses of the maternal genotypes provided evidence of a MTHFR C677T/CBS 844ins68 interaction and CTRD risk (unadjusted P=.02. This association is consistent with the effects of this genotype combination on folate-homocysteine biochemistry but remains to be confirmed in independent study populations.

Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids: Metabolic Activation Pathways Leading to Liver Tumor Initiation.

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Fu, Peter P

2017-01-17

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) and PA N-oxides are a class of phytochemical carcinogens contained in over 6000 plant species spread around the world. It has been estimated that approximately half of the 660 PAs and PA N-oxides that have been characterized are cytotoxic, genotoxic, and tumorigenic. It was recently determined that a genotoxic mechanism of liver tumor initiation mediated by PA-derived DNA adducts is a common metabolic activation pathway of a number of PAs. We proposed this set of PA-derived DNA adducts could be a common biological biomarker of PA exposure and a potential biomarker of PA-induced liver tumor formation. We have also found that several reactive secondary pyrrolic metabolites can dissociate and interconvert to other secondary pyrrolic metabolites, resulting in the formation of the same exogenous DNA adducts. This present perspective reports the current progress on these new findings and proposes future research needed for obtaining a greater understanding of the role of this activation pathway and validating the use of this set of PA-derived DNA adducts as a biological biomarker of PA-induced liver tumor initiation.

Metabolic pathways of lung inflammation revealed by high-resolution metabolomics (HRM) of H1N1 influenza virus infection in mice.

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Chandler, Joshua D; Hu, Xin; Ko, Eun-Ju; Park, Soojin; Lee, Young-Tae; Orr, Michael; Fernandes, Jolyn; Uppal, Karan; Kang, Sang-Moo; Jones, Dean P; Go, Young-Mi

2016-11-01

Influenza is a significant health concern worldwide. Viral infection induces local and systemic activation of the immune system causing attendant changes in metabolism. High-resolution metabolomics (HRM) uses advanced mass spectrometry and computational methods to measure thousands of metabolites inclusive of most metabolic pathways. We used HRM to identify metabolic pathways and clusters of association related to inflammatory cytokines in lungs of mice with H1N1 influenza virus infection. Infected mice showed progressive weight loss, decreased lung function, and severe lung inflammation with elevated cytokines [interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interferon (IFN)-γ] and increased oxidative stress via cysteine oxidation. HRM showed prominent effects of influenza virus infection on tryptophan and other amino acids, and widespread effects on pathways including purines, pyrimidines, fatty acids, and glycerophospholipids. A metabolome-wide association study (MWAS) of the aforementioned inflammatory cytokines was used to determine the relationship of metabolic responses to inflammation during infection. This cytokine-MWAS (cMWAS) showed that metabolic associations consisted of distinct and shared clusters of 396 metabolites highly correlated with inflammatory cytokines. Strong negative associations of selected glycosphingolipid, linoleate, and tryptophan metabolites with IFN-γ contrasted strong positive associations of glycosphingolipid and bile acid metabolites with IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-10. Anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 had strong positive associations with vitamin D, purine, and vitamin E metabolism. The detailed metabolic interactions with cytokines indicate that targeted metabolic interventions may be useful during life-threatening crises related to severe acute infection and inflammation. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Induction of cytoprotective pathways is central to the extension of lifespan conferred by multiple longevity pathways.

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David E Shore

Full Text Available Many genetic and physiological treatments that extend lifespan also confer resistance to a variety of stressors, suggesting that cytoprotective mechanisms underpin the regulation of longevity. It has not been established, however, whether the induction of cytoprotective pathways is essential for lifespan extension or merely correlated. Using a panel of GFP-fused stress response genes, we identified the suites of cytoprotective pathways upregulated by 160 gene inactivations known to increase Caenorhabditis elegans longevity, including the mitochondrial UPR (hsp-6, hsp-60, the ER UPR (hsp-4, ROS response (sod-3, gst-4, and xenobiotic detoxification (gst-4. We then screened for other gene inactivations that disrupt the induction of these responses by xenobiotic or genetic triggers, identifying 29 gene inactivations required for cytoprotective gene expression. If cytoprotective responses contribute directly to lifespan extension, inactivation of these genes would be expected to compromise the extension of lifespan conferred by decreased insulin/IGF-1 signaling, caloric restriction, or the inhibition of mitochondrial function. We find that inactivation of 25 of 29 cytoprotection-regulatory genes shortens the extension of longevity normally induced by decreased insulin/IGF-1 signaling, disruption of mitochondrial function, or caloric restriction, without disrupting normal longevity nearly as dramatically. These data demonstrate that induction of cytoprotective pathways is central to longevity extension and identify a large set of new genetic components of the pathways that detect cellular damage and couple that detection to downstream cytoprotective effectors.

A summary of genomic data relating to E. coli organized by metabolic pathways: An initial version

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Price, M.; Raju, M.; Taylor, R.

1993-01-01

This report summarizes the reactions that occur in some of the principal metabolic pathways of E. coli. These pathways have been encoded as objects in GenoBase, an integrated database under development at Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with researchers at the National Institutes of Health and at Harvard University. The report lists the substrates, products, enzymes, and cofactors for each pathway as a whole, followed by a detailed description of each reaction in the pathway. In addition, for each enzyme, the report displays a description and activity as listed in the Enzyme Data Bank, followed by the corresponding Swiss Protein Data Bank entries. Separate summary lines are included for each of the E. coli genes associated with each enzyme.

Metabolic reprogramming of the urea cycle pathway in experimental pulmonary arterial hypertension rats induced by monocrotaline.

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Zheng, Hai-Kuo; Zhao, Jun-Han; Yan, Yi; Lian, Tian-Yu; Ye, Jue; Wang, Xiao-Jian; Wang, Zhe; Jing, Zhi-Cheng; He, Yang-Yang; Yang, Ping

2018-05-11

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare systemic disorder associated with considerable metabolic dysfunction. Although enormous metabolomic studies on PAH have been emerging, research remains lacking on metabolic reprogramming in experimental PAH models. We aim to evaluate the metabolic changes in PAH and provide new insight into endogenous metabolic disorders of PAH. A single subcutaneous injection of monocrotaline (MCT) (60 mg kg - 1 ) was used for rats to establish PAH model. Hemodynamics and right ventricular hypertrophy were adopted to evaluate the successful establishment of PAH model. Plasma samples were assessed through targeted metabolomic profiling platform to quantify 126 endogenous metabolites. Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was used to discriminate between MCT-treated model and control groups. Metabolite Set Enrichment Analysis was adapted to exploit the most disturbed metabolic pathways. Endogenous metabolites of MCT treated PAH model and control group were well profiled using this platform. A total of 13 plasma metabolites were significantly altered between the two groups. Metabolite Set Enrichment Analysis highlighted that a disruption in the urea cycle pathway may contribute to PAH onset. Moreover, five novel potential biomarkers in the urea cycle, adenosine monophosphate, urea, 4-hydroxy-proline, ornithine, N-acetylornithine, and two candidate biomarkers, namely, O-acetylcarnitine and betaine, were found to be highly correlated with PAH. The present study suggests a new role of urea cycle disruption in the pathogenesis of PAH. We also found five urea cycle related biomarkers and another two candidate biomarkers to facilitate early diagnosis of PAH in metabolomic profile.

Oxygen and the evolution of metabolic pathways

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Jahnke, L. L.

1986-01-01

While a considerable amount of evidence has been accumulated about the history of oxygen on this planet, little is known about the relative amounts to which primitive cells might have been exposed. One clue may be found in the metabolic pathways of extant microorganisms. While eucaryotes are principally aerobic organisms, a number are capable of anaerobic growth by fermentation. One such eucaryotic microorganism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, will grow in the complete absence of oxygen when supplemented with unsaturated fatty acid and sterol. Oxygen-requiring enzymes are involved in the synthesis of both of these compounds. Studies have demonstrated that the oxidative desaturation of palmitic acid and the conversion of squalene to sterols occur in the range of 10-(3) to 10(-2) PAL. Thus, if the oxygen requirements of these enzymatic processes are an indication, eucaryotes might be more primitive than anticipated from the microfossil record. Results of studies on the oxygen requirements for sterol and unsaturated fatty acid synthesis in a more primitive procaryotic system are also discussed.

A hepatic amino acid/mTOR/S6K-dependent signalling pathway modulates systemic lipid metabolism via neuronal signals.

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Uno, Kenji; Yamada, Tetsuya; Ishigaki, Yasushi; Imai, Junta; Hasegawa, Yutaka; Sawada, Shojiro; Kaneko, Keizo; Ono, Hiraku; Asano, Tomoichiro; Oka, Yoshitomo; Katagiri, Hideki

2015-08-13

Metabolism is coordinated among tissues and organs via neuronal signals. Levels of circulating amino acids (AAs), which are elevated in obesity, activate the intracellular target of rapamycin complex-1 (mTORC1)/S6kinase (S6K) pathway in the liver. Here we demonstrate that hepatic AA/mTORC1/S6K signalling modulates systemic lipid metabolism via a mechanism involving neuronal inter-tissue communication. Hepatic expression of an AA transporter, SNAT2, activates the mTORC1/S6K pathway, and markedly elevates serum triglycerides (TGs), while downregulating adipose lipoprotein lipase (LPL). Hepatic Rheb or active-S6K expression have similar metabolic effects, whereas hepatic expression of dominant-negative-S6K inhibits TG elevation in SNAT2 mice. Denervation, pharmacological deafferentation and β-blocker administration suppress obesity-related hypertriglyceridemia with adipose LPL upregulation, suggesting that signals are transduced between liver and adipose tissue via a neuronal pathway consisting of afferent vagal and efferent sympathetic nerves. Thus, the neuronal mechanism uncovered here serves to coordinate amino acid and lipid levels and contributes to the development of obesity-related hypertriglyceridemia.

Dynamic scenario of metabolic pathway adaptation in tumors and therapeutic approach.

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Peppicelli, Silvia; Bianchini, Francesca; Calorini, Lido

2015-01-01

Cancer cells need to regulate their metabolic program to fuel several activities, including unlimited proliferation, resistance to cell death, invasion and metastasis. The aim of this work is to revise this complex scenario. Starting from proliferating cancer cells located in well-oxygenated regions, they may express the so-called "Warburg effect" or aerobic glycolysis, meaning that although a plenty of oxygen is available, cancer cells choose glycolysis, the sole pathway that allows a biomass formation and DNA duplication, needed for cell division. Although oxygen does not represent the primary font of energy, diffusion rate reduces oxygen tension and the emerging hypoxia promotes "anaerobic glycolysis" through the hypoxia inducible factor-1α-dependent up-regulation. The acquired hypoxic phenotype is endowed with high resistance to cell death and high migration capacities, although these cells are less proliferating. Cells using aerobic or anaerobic glycolysis survive only in case they extrude acidic metabolites acidifying the extracellular space. Acidosis drives cancer cells from glycolysis to OxPhos, and OxPhos transforms the available alternative substrates into energy used to fuel migration and distant organ colonization. Thus, metabolic adaptations sustain different energy-requiring ability of cancer cells, but render them responsive to perturbations by anti-metabolic agents, such as inhibitors of glycolysis and/or OxPhos.

An Integrative Approach to Energy Carbon and Redox Metabolism In Cyanobacterium Synechocystis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dr. Ross Overbeek

2003-06-30

The main objectives for the first year were to produce a detailed metabolic reconstruction of synechocystis sp.pcc6803 especially in interrelated arrears of photosynthesis respiration and central carbon metabolism to support a more complete understanding and modeling of this organism. Additionally, IG, Inc. provided detailed bioinformatic analysis of selected functional systems related to carbon and energy generation and utilization, and of the corresponding pathways functional roles and individual genes to support wet lab experiments by collaborators.

Flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3) role in busulphan metabolic pathway

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Terelius, Ylva; Abedi-Valugerdi, Manuchehr; Naughton, Seán; Saghafian, Maryam; Moshfegh, Ali; Mattsson, Jonas; Potácová, Zuzana; Hassan, Moustapha

2017-01-01

Busulphan (Bu) is an alkylating agent used in the conditioning regimen prior to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Bu is extensively metabolized in the liver via conjugations with glutathione to form the intermediate metabolite (sulfonium ion) which subsequently is degraded to tetrahydrothiophene (THT). THT was reported to be oxidized forming THT-1-oxide that is further oxidized to sulfolane and finally 3-hydroxysulfolane. However, the underlying mechanisms for the formation of these metabolites remain poorly understood. In the present study, we performed in vitro and in vivo investigations to elucidate the involvement of flavin-containing monooxygenase-3 (FMO3) and cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs) in Bu metabolic pathway. Rapid clearance of THT was observed when incubated with human liver microsomes. Furthermore, among different recombinant microsomal enzymes, the highest intrinsic clearance for THT was obtained via FMO3 followed by several CYPs including 2B6, 2C8, 2C9, 2C19, 2E1 and 3A4. In Bu- or THT-treated mice, inhibition of FMO3 by phenylthiourea significantly suppressed the clearance of both Bu and THT. Moreover, the simultaneous administration of a high dose of THT (200μmol/kg) to Bu-treated mice reduced the clearance of Bu. Consistently, in patients undergoing HSCT, repeated administration of Bu resulted in a significant up-regulation of FMO3 and glutathione-S-transfrase -1 (GSTA1) genes. Finally, in a Bu-treated patient, additional treatment with voriconazole (an antimycotic drug known as an FMO3-substrate) significantly altered the Bu clearance. In conclusion, we demonstrate for the first time that FMO3 along with CYPs contribute a major part in busulphan metabolic pathway and certainly can affect its kinetics. The present results have high clinical impact. Furthermore, these findings might be important for reducing the treatment-related toxicity of Bu, through avoiding interaction with other concomitant used drugs during conditioning and

Metabolic effect of TAp63α : enhanced glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway, resulting in increased antioxidant defense

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D'Alessandro, Angelo; Amelio, Ivano; Berkers, Celia R; Antonov, Alexey; Vousden, Karen H; Melino, Gerry; Zolla, Lello

2014-01-01

TAp63α is a member of the p53 family, which plays a central role in epithelial cancers. Recently, a role has emerged for p53 family members in cancer metabolic modulation. In order to assess whether TAp63α plays a role in cancer metabolism, we exploited p53-null osteosarcoma Tet-On Saos-2 cells, in

Pathway confirmation and flux analysis of central metabolicpathways in Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough using gaschromatography-mass spectrometry and fourier transform-ion cyclotronresonance mass spectrometry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tang, Yinjie; Pingitore, Francesco; Mukhopadhyay, Aindrila; Phan,Richard; Hazen, Terry C.; Keasling, Jay D.

2006-07-11

It has been proposed that during growth under anaerobic oroxygen-limited conditions Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 uses theserine-isocitrate lyase pathway common to many methylotrophic anaerobes,in which formaldehyde produced from pyruvate is condensed with glycine toform serine. The serine is then transformed through hydroxypyruvate andglycerate to enter central metabolism at phosphoglycerate. To examine itsuse of the serine-isocitrate lyase pathway under anaerobic conditions, wegrew S. oneidensis MR-1 on [1-13C]lactate as the sole carbon source witheither trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) or fumarate as an electron acceptor.Analysis of cellular metabolites indicates that a large percentage(>75 percent) of lactate was partially oxidized to either acetate orpyruvate. The 13C isotope distributions in amino acids and other keymetabolites indicate that, under anaerobic conditions, a complete serinepathway is not present, and lactate is oxidized via a highly reversibleserine degradation pathway. The labeling data also suggest significantactivity in the anaplerotic (malic enzyme and phosphoenolpyruvatecarboxylase) and glyoxylate shunt (isocitrate lyase and malate synthase)reactions. Although the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle is often observedto be incomplete in many other anaerobes (absence of 2-oxoglutaratedehydrogenase activity), isotopic labeling supports the existence of acomplete TCA cycle in S. oneidensis MR-1 under TMAO reductioncondition.

High-throughput metabolic state analysis: The missing link in integrated functional genomics of yeasts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Villas-Bôas, Silas Granato; Moxley, Joel. F; Åkesson, Mats Fredrik

2005-01-01

that achieve comparable throughput, effort and cost compared with DNA arrays. Our sample workup method enables simultaneous metabolite measurements throughout central carbon metabolism and amino acid biosynthesis, using a standard GC-MS platform that was optimized for this Purpose. As an implementation proof......-of-concept, we assayed metabolite levels in two yeast strains and two different environmental conditions in the context of metabolic pathway reconstruction. We demonstrate that these differential metabolite level data distinguish among sample types, such as typical metabolic fingerprinting or footprinting. More...

Pediatric neurological syndromes and inborn errors of purine metabolism.

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Camici, Marcella; Micheli, Vanna; Ipata, Piero Luigi; Tozzi, Maria Grazia

2010-02-01

This review is devised to gather the presently known inborn errors of purine metabolism that manifest neurological pediatric syndromes. The aim is to draw a comprehensive picture of these rare diseases, characterized by unexpected and often devastating neurological symptoms. Although investigated for many years, most purine metabolism disorders associated to psychomotor dysfunctions still hide the molecular link between the metabolic derangement and the neurological manifestations. This basically indicates that many of the actual functions of nucleosides and nucleotides in the development and function of several organs, in particular central nervous system, are still unknown. Both superactivity and deficiency of phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase cause hereditary disorders characterized, in most cases, by neurological impairments. The deficiency of adenylosuccinate lyase and 5-amino-4-imidazolecarboxamide ribotide transformylase/IMP cyclohydrolase, both belonging to the de novo purine synthesis pathway, is also associated to severe neurological manifestations. Among catabolic enzymes, hyperactivity of ectosolic 5'-nucleotidase, as well as deficiency of purine nucleoside phosphorylase and adenosine deaminase also lead to syndromes affecting the central nervous system. The most severe pathologies are associated to the deficiency of the salvage pathway enzymes hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase and deoxyguanosine kinase: the former due to an unexplained adverse effect exerted on the development and/or differentiation of dopaminergic neurons, the latter due to a clear impairment of mitochondrial functions. The assessment of hypo- or hyperuricemic conditions is suggestive of purine enzyme dysfunctions, but most disorders of purine metabolism may escape the clinical investigation because they are not associated to these metabolic derangements. This review may represent a starting point stimulating both scientists and physicians involved in the study of

Integrated in silico Analyses of Regulatory and Metabolic Networks of Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 Reveal Relationships between Gene Centrality and Essentiality

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Hyun-Seob Song

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Cyanobacteria dynamically relay environmental inputs to intracellular adaptations through a coordinated adjustment of photosynthetic efficiency and carbon processing rates. The output of such adaptations is reflected through changes in transcriptional patterns and metabolic flux distributions that ultimately define growth strategy. To address interrelationships between metabolism and regulation, we performed integrative analyses of metabolic and gene co-expression networks in a model cyanobacterium, Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002. Centrality analyses using the gene co-expression network identified a set of key genes, which were defined here as “topologically important.” Parallel in silico gene knock-out simulations, using the genome-scale metabolic network, classified what we termed as “functionally important” genes, deletion of which affected growth or metabolism. A strong positive correlation was observed between topologically and functionally important genes. Functionally important genes exhibited variable levels of topological centrality; however, the majority of topologically central genes were found to be functionally essential for growth. Subsequent functional enrichment analysis revealed that both functionally and topologically important genes in Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 are predominantly associated with translation and energy metabolism, two cellular processes critical for growth. This research demonstrates how synergistic network-level analyses can be used for reconciliation of metabolic and gene expression data to uncover fundamental biological principles.

Proteomics of the rat myocardium during development of type 2 diabetes mellitus reveals progressive alterations in major metabolic pathways

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Edhager, Anders Valdemar; Povlsen, Jonas Agerlund; Løfgren, Bo

2018-01-01

in intracellular metabolic pathways in the Zucker diabetic fatty rat heart as T2DM develops using MS based proteomics. The pre-diabetic state only induced minor pathway changes, whereas onset and late T2DM caused pronounced perturbations. Two actin-associated proteins, ARPC2 and TPM3, were up-regulated at the pre...

Metabolic syndrome and benign prostatic hyperplasia: An update

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Ho-Yin Ngai

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Metabolic syndrome (MetS is a cluster of metabolic abnormalities related to central adiposity and insulin resistance. Its importance is increasingly recognized as it associates with increased risks of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. These metabolic aberrations of MetS may lead to development of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS in men. A 26.5%–55.6% prevalence of MetS in men with LUTS was reported in worldwide studies. Although the exact biological pathway is not clear yet, insulin resistance, increased visceral adiposity, sex hormone alterations and cellular inflammatory reactions played significant roles in the related pathophysiological processes. Clinician should recognize the cardiovascular and metabolic impacts of MetS in men with LUTS, early risk factors optimization and use of appropriate medical therapy may possibly alter or slower the progression of LUTS/BPH, and potentially avoid unnecessary morbidities and mortalities from cardiovascular and metabolic diseases for those men.

Bidirectional Expression of Metabolic, Structural, and Immune Pathways in Early Myopia and Hyperopia

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Nina Riddell

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Myopia (short-sightedness affects 1.45 billion people worldwide, many of whom will develop sight-threatening secondary disorders. Myopic eyes are characterized by excessive size while hyperopic (long-sighted eyes are typically small. The biological and genetic mechanisms underpinning the retina’s local control of these growth patterns remain unclear. In the present study, we used RNA sequencing to examine gene expression in the retina/RPE/choroid across 3 days of optically-induced myopia and hyperopia induction in chick. Data were analysed for differential expression of single genes, and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA was used to identify gene sets correlated with ocular axial length and refraction across lens groups. Like previous studies, we found few single genes that were differentially-expressed in a sign-of-defocus dependent manner (only BMP2 at 1 day. Using GSEA, however, we are the first to show that more subtle shifts in structural, metabolic, and immune pathway expression are correlated with the eye size and refractive changes induced by lens defocus. Our findings link gene expression with the morphological characteristics of refractive error, and suggest that physiological stress arising from metabolic and inflammatory pathway activation could increase the vulnerability of myopic eyes to secondary pathologies

Metabolic Engineering: Techniques for analysis of targets for genetic manipulations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jens Bredal

1998-01-01

Metabolic engineering has been defined as the purposeful modification of intermediary metabolism using recombinant DNA techniques. With this definition metabolic engineering includes: (1) inserting new pathways in microorganisms with the aim of producing novel metabolites, e.g., production...... of polyketides by Streptomyces; (2) production of heterologous peptides, e.g., production of human insulin, erythropoitin, and tPA; and (3) improvement of both new and existing processes, e.g., production of antibiotics and industrial enzymes. Metabolic engineering is a multidisciplinary approach, which involves...... input from chemical engineers, molecular biologists, biochemists, physiologists, and analytical chemists. Obviously, molecular biology is central in the production of novel products, as well as in the improvement of existing processes. However, in the latter case, input from other disciplines is pivotal...

Plasma metabolomics reveals membrane lipids, aspartate/asparagine and nucleotide metabolism pathway differences associated with chloroquine resistance in Plasmodium vivax malaria

Science.gov (United States)

Salinas, Jorge L.; Monteiro, Wuelton M.; Val, Fernando; Cordy, Regina J.; Liu, Ken; Melo, Gisely C.; Siqueira, Andre M.; Magalhaes, Belisa; Galinski, Mary R.; Lacerda, Marcus V. G.; Jones, Dean P.

2017-01-01

Background Chloroquine (CQ) is the main anti-schizontocidal drug used in the treatment of uncomplicated malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax. Chloroquine resistant P. vivax (PvCR) malaria in the Western Pacific region, Asia and in the Americas indicates a need for biomarkers of resistance to improve therapy and enhance understanding of the mechanisms associated with PvCR. In this study, we compared plasma metabolic profiles of P. vivax malaria patients with PvCR and chloroquine sensitive parasites before treatment to identify potential molecular markers of chloroquine resistance. Methods An untargeted high-resolution metabolomics analysis was performed on plasma samples collected in a malaria clinic in Manaus, Brazil. Male and female patients with Plasmodium vivax were included (n = 46); samples were collected before CQ treatment and followed for 28 days to determine PvCR, defined as the recurrence of parasitemia with detectable plasma concentrations of CQ ≥100 ng/dL. Differentially expressed metabolic features between CQ-Resistant (CQ-R) and CQ-Sensitive (CQ-S) patients were identified using partial least squares discriminant analysis and linear regression after adjusting for covariates and multiple testing correction. Pathway enrichment analysis was performed using Mummichog. Results Linear regression and PLS-DA methods yielded 69 discriminatory features between CQ-R and CQ-S groups, with 10-fold cross-validation classification accuracy of 89.6% using a SVM classifier. Pathway enrichment analysis showed significant enrichment (p<0.05) of glycerophospholipid metabolism, glycosphingolipid metabolism, aspartate and asparagine metabolism, purine and pyrimidine metabolism, and xenobiotics metabolism. Glycerophosphocholines levels were significantly lower in the CQ-R group as compared to CQ-S patients and also to independent control samples. Conclusions The results show differences in lipid, amino acids, and nucleotide metabolism pathways in the plasma of CQ-R versus

The unique features of glycolytic pathways in Archaea.

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Verhees, Corné H; Kengen, Servé W M; Tuininga, Judith E; Schut, Gerrit J; Adams, Michael W W; De Vos, Willem M; Van Der Oost, John

2003-10-15

An early divergence in evolution has resulted in two prokaryotic domains, the Bacteria and the Archaea. Whereas the central metabolic routes of bacteria and eukaryotes are generally well-conserved, variant pathways have developed in Archaea involving several novel enzymes with a distinct control. A spectacular example of convergent evolution concerns the glucose-degrading pathways of saccharolytic archaea. The identification, characterization and comparison of the glycolytic enzymes of a variety of phylogenetic lineages have revealed a mosaic of canonical and novel enzymes in the archaeal variants of the Embden-Meyerhof and the Entner-Doudoroff pathways. By means of integrating results from biochemical and genetic studies with recently obtained comparative and functional genomics data, the structure and function of the archaeal glycolytic routes, the participating enzymes and their regulation are re-evaluated.

MiYA, an efficient machine-learning workflow in conjunction with the YeastFab assembly strategy for combinatorial optimization of heterologous metabolic pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Yikang; Li, Gang; Dong, Junkai; Xing, Xin-Hui; Dai, Junbiao; Zhang, Chong

2018-05-01

Facing boosting ability to construct combinatorial metabolic pathways, how to search the metabolic sweet spot has become the rate-limiting step. We here reported an efficient Machine-learning workflow in conjunction with YeastFab Assembly strategy (MiYA) for combinatorial optimizing the large biosynthetic genotypic space of heterologous metabolic pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Using β-carotene biosynthetic pathway as example, we first demonstrated that MiYA has the power to search only a small fraction (2-5%) of combinatorial space to precisely tune the expression level of each gene with a machine-learning algorithm of an artificial neural network (ANN) ensemble to avoid over-fitting problem when dealing with a small number of training samples. We then applied MiYA to improve the biosynthesis of violacein. Feed with initial data from a colorimetric plate-based, pre-screened pool of 24 strains producing violacein, MiYA successfully predicted, and verified experimentally, the existence of a strain that showed a 2.42-fold titer improvement in violacein production among 3125 possible designs. Furthermore, MiYA was able to largely avoid the branch pathway of violacein biosynthesis that makes deoxyviolacein, and produces very pure violacein. Together, MiYA combines the advantages of standardized building blocks and machine learning to accelerate the Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) cycle for combinatorial optimization of metabolic pathways, which could significantly accelerate the development of microbial cell factories. Copyright © 2018 International Metabolic Engineering Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Xenobiotic Metabolizing Gene Variants and Renal Cell Cancer: A Multicenter Study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heck, Julia E.; Moore, Lee E.; Lee, Yuan-Chin A.; McKay, James D.; Hung, Rayjean J.; Karami, Sara; Gaborieau, Valérie; Szeszenia-Dabrowska, Neonila; Zaridze, David G.; Mukeriya, Anush; Mates, Dana; Foretova, Lenka; Janout, Vladimir; Kollárová, Helena; Bencko, Vladimir; Rothman, Nathaniel; Brennan, Paul; Chow, Wong-Ho; Boffetta, Paolo

2012-01-01

Background: The countries of Central and Eastern Europe have among the highest worldwide rates of renal cell cancer (RCC). Few studies have examined whether genetic variation in xenobiotic metabolic pathway genes may modify risk for this cancer. Methods: The Central and Eastern Europe Renal Cell Cancer study was a hospital-based case–control study conducted between 1998 and 2003 across seven centers in Central and Eastern Europe. Detailed data were collected from 874 cases and 2053 controls on demographics, work history, and occupational exposure to chemical agents. Genes [cytochrome P-450 family, N-acetyltransferases, NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase I (NQO1), microsomal epoxide hydrolase (mEH), catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT)] were selected for the present analysis based on their putative role in xenobiotic metabolism. Haplotypes were calculated using fastPhase. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated by unconditional logistic regression adjusted for country of residence, age, sex, smoking, alcohol intake, obesity, and hypertension. Results: We observed an increased risk of RCC with one SNP. After adjustment for multiple comparisons it did not remain significant. Neither NAT1 nor NAT2 slow acetylation was associated with disease. Conclusion: We observed no association between this pathway and renal cell cancer.

Xenobiotic Metabolizing Gene Variants and Renal Cell Cancer: A Multicenter Study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Heck, Julia E. [International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon (France); Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Moore, Lee E. [Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD (United States); Lee, Yuan-Chin A. [International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon (France); Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (United States); McKay, James D. [International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon (France); Hung, Rayjean J. [Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON (Canada); Karami, Sara [Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD (United States); Gaborieau, Valérie [International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon (France); Szeszenia-Dabrowska, Neonila [Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz (Poland); Zaridze, David G. [Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Carcinogenesis, Moscow (Russian Federation); Mukeriya, Anush [Cancer Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology, Moscow (Russian Federation); Mates, Dana [Institute of Public Health, Bucharest (Romania); Foretova, Lenka [Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute, Brno (Czech Republic); Janout, Vladimir; Kollárová, Helena [Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Palacky University, Olomouc (Czech Republic); Bencko, Vladimir [First Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic (Czech Republic); Rothman, Nathaniel [Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD (United States); Brennan, Paul [International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon (France); Chow, Wong-Ho [Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD (United States); Boffetta, Paolo, E-mail: paolo.boffetta@mssm.edu [International Prevention Research Institute, Lyon (France); Tisch Cancer Institute, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY (United States)

2012-02-20

Background: The countries of Central and Eastern Europe have among the highest worldwide rates of renal cell cancer (RCC). Few studies have examined whether genetic variation in xenobiotic metabolic pathway genes may modify risk for this cancer. Methods: The Central and Eastern Europe Renal Cell Cancer study was a hospital-based case–control study conducted between 1998 and 2003 across seven centers in Central and Eastern Europe. Detailed data were collected from 874 cases and 2053 controls on demographics, work history, and occupational exposure to chemical agents. Genes [cytochrome P-450 family, N-acetyltransferases, NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase I (NQO1), microsomal epoxide hydrolase (mEH), catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT)] were selected for the present analysis based on their putative role in xenobiotic metabolism. Haplotypes were calculated using fastPhase. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated by unconditional logistic regression adjusted for country of residence, age, sex, smoking, alcohol intake, obesity, and hypertension. Results: We observed an increased risk of RCC with one SNP. After adjustment for multiple comparisons it did not remain significant. Neither NAT1 nor NAT2 slow acetylation was associated with disease. Conclusion: We observed no association between this pathway and renal cell cancer.

Dynamics of NAD-metabolism: everything but constant.

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Opitz, Christiane A; Heiland, Ines

2015-12-01

NAD, as well as its phosphorylated form, NADP, are best known as electron carriers and co-substrates of various redox reactions. As such they participate in approximately one quarter of all reactions listed in the reaction database KEGG. In metabolic pathway analysis, the total amount of NAD is usually assumed to be constant. That means that changes in the redox state might be considered, but concentration changes of the NAD moiety are usually neglected. However, a growing number of NAD-consuming reactions have been identified, showing that this assumption does not hold true in general. NAD-consuming reactions are common characteristics of NAD(+)-dependent signalling pathways and include mono- and poly-ADP-ribosylation of proteins, NAD(+)-dependent deacetylation by sirtuins and the formation of messenger molecules such as cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR) and nicotinic acid (NA)-ADP (NAADP). NAD-consuming reactions are thus involved in major signalling and gene regulation pathways such as DNA-repair or regulation of enzymes central in metabolism. All known NAD(+)-dependent signalling processes include the release of nicotinamide (Nam). Thus cellular NAD pools need to be constantly replenished, mostly by recycling Nam to NAD(+). This process is, among others, regulated by the circadian clock, causing complex dynamic changes in NAD concentration. As disturbances in NAD homoeostasis are associated with a large number of diseases ranging from cancer to diabetes, it is important to better understand the dynamics of NAD metabolism to develop efficient pharmacological invention strategies to target this pathway. © 2015 Authors; published by Portland Press Limited.

Harnessing natural diversity to probe metabolic pathways.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oliver R Homann

2005-12-01

Full Text Available Analyses of cellular processes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae rely primarily upon a small number of highly domesticated laboratory strains, leaving the extensive natural genetic diversity of the model organism largely unexplored and unexploited. We asked if this diversity could be used to enrich our understanding of basic biological processes. As a test case, we examined a simple trait: the utilization of di/tripeptides as nitrogen sources. The capacity to import small peptides is likely to be under opposing selective pressures (nutrient utilization versus toxin vulnerability and may therefore be sculpted by diverse pathways and strategies. Hitherto, dipeptide utilization in S. cerevisiae was solely ascribed to the activity of a single protein, the Ptr2p transporter. Using high-throughput phenotyping and several genetically diverse strains, we identified previously unknown cellular activities that contribute to this trait. We find that the Dal5p allantoate/ureidosuccinate permease is also capable of facilitating di/tripeptide transport. Moreover, even in the absence of Dal5p and Ptr2p, an additional activity--almost certainly the periplasmic asparaginase II Asp3p--facilitates the utilization of dipeptides with C-terminal asparagine residues by a different strategy. Another, as-yet-unidentified activity enables the utilization of dipeptides with C-terminal arginine residues. The relative contributions of these activities to the utilization of di/tripeptides vary among the strains analyzed, as does the vulnerability of these strains to a toxic dipeptide. Only by sampling the genetic diversity of multiple strains were we able to uncover several previously unrecognized layers of complexity in this metabolic pathway. High-throughput phenotyping facilitates the rapid exploration of the molecular basis of biological complexity, allowing for future detailed investigation of the selective pressures that drive microbial evolution.

D-Serine exposure resulted in gene expression changes indicative of activation of fibrogenic pathways and down-regulation of energy metabolism and oxidative stress response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soto, Armando; DelRaso, Nicholas J.; Schlager, John J.; Chan, Victor T.

2008-01-01

, metabolism and transport, inflammatory response, proteasome-mediated degradation of oxidatively damaged cytosolic proteins, Ras protein signal transduction, TGF-beta signaling pathway and mRNA transcription, processing, splicing and transport. On the other hand, major metabolic pathways, which include carbohydrate metabolism, TCA cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, ATP synthesis coupled electron transport, amino acid metabolism and transport, lipid metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, and vitamin metabolism, and oxidative stress response including induction of antioxidant genes and glutathione metabolism are down-regulated. As tubular epithelia have strong energy demand for normal functions, down-regulation of energy metabolism after D-serine treatment may be related to the mechanism of its nephrotoxicity. In addition, hydrogen peroxide, a reactive oxygen species, is produced as a byproduct of the metabolism of D-serine by D-amino acid oxidase in the peroxisomes of the tubular epithelia. Down-regulation of pathways for antioxidant genes induction and glutathione metabolism will likely exacerbate the cytotoxicity of this reactive oxygen species. The observation that the genes involved in apoptosis, DNA repair, proteasome pathway for the degradation of oxidatively damaged cytosolic proteins were up-regulated lends some supports to this premise. Up-regulation of pathways of cell proliferation cycle, DNA replication and gene expression process, including mRNA transcription, processing, splicing, transport, translation initiation, and protein transport along with protein complex assembly, suggests ongoing tissue repair and regeneration. Consistent with the fibrogenic function of the TGF-beta signaling pathway in various experimental renal diseases, genes encoding major extracellular matrix components such as collagens, laminins, fibronectin 1 and tenascins are also strongly up-regulated. Taken together, the results of this study provide important insights into the molecular mechanism

Metabolomics by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the response to chloroethylnitrosourea reveals drug efficacy and tumor adaptive metabolic pathways.

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Morvan, Daniel; Demidem, Aicha

2007-03-01

Metabolomics of tumors may allow discovery of tumor biomarkers and metabolic therapeutic targets. Metabolomics by two-dimensional proton high-resolution magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was applied to investigate metabolite disorders following treatment by chloroethylnitrosourea of murine B16 melanoma (n = 33) and 3LL pulmonary carcinoma (n = 31) in vivo. Treated tumors of both types resumed growth after a delay. Nitrosoureas provoke DNA damage but the metabolic consequences of genotoxic stress are little known yet. Although some differences were observed in the metabolite profile of untreated tumor types, the prominent metabolic features of the response to nitrosourea were common to both. During the growth inhibition phase, there was an accumulation of glucose (more than x10; P < 0.05), glutamine (x3 to 4; P < 0.01), and aspartate (x2 to 5; P < 0.01). This response testified to nucleoside de novo synthesis down-regulation and drug efficacy. However, this phase also involved the increase in alanine (P < 0.001 in B16 melanoma), the decrease in succinate (P < 0.001), and the accumulation of serine-derived metabolites (glycine, phosphoethanolamine, and formate; P < 0.01). This response witnessed the activation of pathways implicated in energy production and resumption of nucleotide de novo synthesis, thus metabolic pathways of DNA repair and adaptation to treatment. During the growth recovery phase, it remained polyunsaturated fatty acid accumulation (x1.5 to 2; P < 0.05) and reduced utilization of glucose compared with glutamine (P < 0.05), a metabolic fingerprint of adaptation. Thus, this study provides the proof of principle that metabolomics of tumor response to an anticancer agent may help discover metabolic pathways of drug efficacy and adaptation to treatment.

Drug metabolism by cytochrome p450 enzymes: what distinguishes the pathways leading to substrate hydroxylation over desaturation?

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Li; Faponle, Abayomi S; Quesne, Matthew G; Sainna, Mala A; Zhang, Jing; Franke, Alicja; Kumar, Devesh; van Eldik, Rudi; Liu, Weiping; de Visser, Sam P

2015-06-15

Cytochrome P450 enzymes are highly versatile biological catalysts in our body that react with a broad range of substrates. Key functions in the liver include the metabolism of drugs and xenobiotics. One particular metabolic pathway that is poorly understood relates to the P450 activation of aliphatic groups leading to either hydroxylation or desaturation pathways. A DFT and QM/MM study has been carried out on the factors that determine the regioselectivity of aliphatic hydroxylation over desaturation of compounds by P450 isozymes. The calculations establish multistate reactivity patterns, whereby the product distributions differ on each of the spin-state surfaces; hence spin-selective product formation was found. The electronic and thermochemical factors that determine the bifurcation pathways were analysed and a model that predicts the regioselectivity of aliphatic hydroxylation over desaturation pathways was established from valence bond and molecular orbital theories. Thus, the difference in energy of the OH versus the OC bond formed and the π-conjugation energy determines the degree of desaturation products. In addition, environmental effects of the substrate binding pocket that affect the regioselectivities were identified. These studies imply that bioengineering P450 isozymes for desaturation reactions will have to include modifications in the substrate binding pocket to restrict the hydroxylation rebound reaction. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

From pathways to genomes and beyond. The metabolic engineering toolbox and its place in biofuels production

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Leqian; Reed, Ben; Alper, Hal [Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering

2011-07-01

Concerns about the availability of petroleum-derived fuels and chemicals have led to the exploration of metabolically engineered organisms as novel hosts for biofuels and chemicals production. However, the complexity inherent in metabolic and regulatory networks makes this undertaking a complex task. To address these limitations, metabolic engineering has adapted a wide-variety of tools for altering phenotypes. In this review, we will highlight traditional and recent metabolic engineering tools for optimizing cells including pathway-based, global, and genomic-enabled approaches. Specifically, we describe these tools as well as provide demonstrations of their effectiveness in optimizing biofuels production. However, each of these tools provides stepping stones towards the grand goal of biofuels production. Thus, developing methods for large-scale cellular optimization and integrative approaches are invaluable for further cell optimization. This review highlights the challenges that still must be met to accomplish this goal. (orig.)

Effects of CD44 Ligation on Signaling and Metabolic Pathways in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

KAUST Repository

Madhoun, Nour Y.

2017-04-01

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is characterized by a blockage in the differentiation of myeloid cells at different stages. CD44-ligation using anti-CD44 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) has been shown to reverse the blockage of differentiation and to inhibit the proliferation of blasts in most AML-subtypes. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this property have not been fully elucidated. Here, we sought to I) analyze the effects of anti-CD44 mAbs on downstream signaling pathways, including the ERK1/2 (extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2) and mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) pathways and II) use state-of-the-art Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) technology to determine the global metabolic changes during differentiation induction of AML cells using anti-CD44 mAbs and other two previously reported differentiation agents. In the first objective (Chapter 4), our studies provide evidence that CD44-ligation with specific mAbs in AML cells induced an increase in ERK1/2 phosphorylation. The use of the MEK inhibitor (U0126) significantly inhibited the CD44-induced differentiation of HL60 cells, suggesting that ERK1/2 is critical for the CD44-triggered differentiation in AML. In addition, this was accompanied by a marked decrease in the phosphorylation of the mTORC1 and mTORC2 complexes, which are strongly correlated with the inhibition of the PI3K/Akt pathway. In the second objective (Chapter 5), 1H NMR experiments demonstrated that considerable changes in the metabolic profiles of HL60 cells were induced in response to each differentiation agent. These most notable metabolites that significantly changed upon CD44 ligation were involved in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and glycolysis such as, succinate, fumarate and lactate. Therefore, we sought to analyze the mechanisms underlying their alterations. Our results revealed that anti-CD44 mAbs treatment induced upregulation in fumarate hydratase (FH) expression and its activity which was accompanied by a

Central Carbon Metabolic Pathways in Streptomyces

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Keulen, Geertje; Siebring, Jeroen; Dijkhuizen, Lubbert; Dyson, Paul

Streptomyces and other actinomycetes are fascinating soil bacteria of major economic importance. They produce 70% of antibiotics known to man and numerous other pharmaceuticals for treatment of, e.g. cancer, a range of infections, high cholesterol, or have immunosuppressive activity. It is not

GEM System: automatic prototyping of cell-wide metabolic pathway models from genomes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nakayama Yoichi

2006-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Successful realization of a "systems biology" approach to analyzing cells is a grand challenge for our understanding of life. However, current modeling approaches to cell simulation are labor-intensive, manual affairs, and therefore constitute a major bottleneck in the evolution of computational cell biology. Results We developed the Genome-based Modeling (GEM System for the purpose of automatically prototyping simulation models of cell-wide metabolic pathways from genome sequences and other public biological information. Models generated by the GEM System include an entire Escherichia coli metabolism model comprising 968 reactions of 1195 metabolites, achieving 100% coverage when compared with the KEGG database, 92.38% with the EcoCyc database, and 95.06% with iJR904 genome-scale model. Conclusion The GEM System prototypes qualitative models to reduce the labor-intensive tasks required for systems biology research. Models of over 90 bacterial genomes are available at our web site.

Vitamin D metabolic pathway genes and pancreatic cancer risk.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hannah Arem

Full Text Available Evidence on the association between vitamin D status and pancreatic cancer risk is inconsistent. This inconsistency may be partially attributable to variation in vitamin D regulating genes. We selected 11 vitamin D-related genes (GC, DHCR7, CYP2R1, VDR, CYP27B1, CYP24A1, CYP27A1, RXRA, CRP2, CASR and CUBN totaling 213 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, and examined associations with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Our study included 3,583 pancreatic cancer cases and 7,053 controls from the genome-wide association studies of pancreatic cancer PanScans-I-III. We used the Adaptive Joint Test and the Adaptive Rank Truncated Product statistic for pathway and gene analyses, and unconditional logistic regression for SNP analyses, adjusting for age, sex, study and population stratification. We examined effect modification by circulating vitamin D concentration (≤50, >50 nmol/L for the most significant SNPs using a subset of cohort cases (n = 713 and controls (n = 878. The vitamin D metabolic pathway was not associated with pancreatic cancer risk (p = 0.830. Of the individual genes, none were associated with pancreatic cancer risk at a significance level of p<0.05. SNPs near the VDR (rs2239186, LRP2 (rs4668123, CYP24A1 (rs2762932, GC (rs2282679, and CUBN (rs1810205 genes were the top SNPs associated with pancreatic cancer (p-values 0.008-0.037, but none were statistically significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons. Associations between these SNPs and pancreatic cancer were not modified by circulating concentrations of vitamin D. These findings do not support an association between vitamin D-related genes and pancreatic cancer risk. Future research should explore other pathways through which vitamin D status might be associated with pancreatic cancer risk.

From elementary flux modes to elementary flux vectors: Metabolic pathway analysis with arbitrary linear flux constraints

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Klamt, Steffen; Gerstl, Matthias P.; Jungreuthmayer, Christian; Mahadevan, Radhakrishnan; Müller, Stefan

2017-01-01

Elementary flux modes (EFMs) emerged as a formal concept to describe metabolic pathways and have become an established tool for constraint-based modeling and metabolic network analysis. EFMs are characteristic (support-minimal) vectors of the flux cone that contains all feasible steady-state flux vectors of a given metabolic network. EFMs account for (homogeneous) linear constraints arising from reaction irreversibilities and the assumption of steady state; however, other (inhomogeneous) linear constraints, such as minimal and maximal reaction rates frequently used by other constraint-based techniques (such as flux balance analysis [FBA]), cannot be directly integrated. These additional constraints further restrict the space of feasible flux vectors and turn the flux cone into a general flux polyhedron in which the concept of EFMs is not directly applicable anymore. For this reason, there has been a conceptual gap between EFM-based (pathway) analysis methods and linear optimization (FBA) techniques, as they operate on different geometric objects. One approach to overcome these limitations was proposed ten years ago and is based on the concept of elementary flux vectors (EFVs). Only recently has the community started to recognize the potential of EFVs for metabolic network analysis. In fact, EFVs exactly represent the conceptual development required to generalize the idea of EFMs from flux cones to flux polyhedra. This work aims to present a concise theoretical and practical introduction to EFVs that is accessible to a broad audience. We highlight the close relationship between EFMs and EFVs and demonstrate that almost all applications of EFMs (in flux cones) are possible for EFVs (in flux polyhedra) as well. In fact, certain properties can only be studied with EFVs. Thus, we conclude that EFVs provide a powerful and unifying framework for constraint-based modeling of metabolic networks. PMID:28406903

Metabolic enzyme expression highlights a key role for MTHFD2 and the mitochondrial folate pathway in cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Nilsson, Roland; Jain, Mohit; Madhusudhan, Nikhil; Sheppard, Nina Gustafsson; Strittmatter, Laura; Kampf, Caroline; Huang, Jenny; Asplund, Anna; Mootha, Vamsi K.

2014-01-01

Metabolic remodeling is now widely regarded as a hallmark of cancer, but it is not clear whether individual metabolic strategies are frequently exploited by many tumours. Here we compare messenger RNA profiles of 1,454 metabolic enzymes across 1,981 tumours spanning 19 cancer types to identify enzymes that are consistently differentially expressed. Our meta-analysis recovers established targets of some of the most widely used chemotherapeutics, including dihydrofolate reductase, thymidylate synthase and ribonucleotide reductase, while also spotlighting new enzymes, such as the mitochondrial proline biosynthetic enzyme PYCR1. The highest scoring pathway is mitochondrial one-carbon metabolism and is centred on MTHFD2. MTHFD2 RNA and protein are markedly elevated in many cancers and correlated with poor survival in breast cancer. MTHFD2 is expressed in the developing embryo, but is absent in most healthy adult tissues, even those that are proliferating. Our study highlights the importance of mitochondrial compartmentalization of one-carbon metabolism in cancer and raises important therapeutic hypotheses.

BMP and TGFbeta pathways in human central chondrosarcoma: enhanced endoglin and Smad 1 signaling in high grade tumors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boeuf, Stephane; Bovée, Judith VMG; Lehner, Burkhard; Akker, Brendy van den; Ruler, Maayke van; Cleton-Jansen, Anne-Marie; Richter, Wiltrud

2012-01-01

As major regulators of normal chondrogenesis, the bone morphogenic protein (BMP) and transforming growth factor β (TGFB) signaling pathways may be involved in the development and progression of central chondrosarcoma. In order to uncover their possible implication, the aim of this study was to perform a systematic quantitative study of the expression of BMPs, TGFBs and their receptors and to assess activity of the corresponding pathways in central chondrosarcoma. Gene expression analysis was performed by quantitative RT-PCR in 26 central chondrosarcoma and 6 healthy articular cartilage samples. Expression of endoglin and nuclear localization of phosphorylated Smad1/5/8 and Smad2 was assessed by immunohistochemical analysis. The expression of TGFB3 and of the activin receptor-like kinase ALK2 was found to be significantly higher in grade III compared to grade I chondrosarcoma. Nuclear phosphorylated Smad1/5/8 and Smad2 were found in all tumors analyzed and the activity of both signaling pathways was confirmed by functional reporter assays in 2 chondrosarcoma cell lines. Immunohistochemical analysis furthermore revealed that phosphorylated Smad1/5/8 and endoglin expression were significantly higher in high-grade compared to low-grade chondrosarcoma and correlated to each other. The BMP and TGFβ signaling pathways were found to be active in central chondrosarcoma cells. The correlation of Smad1/5/8 activity to endoglin expression suggests that, as described in other cell types, endoglin could enhance Smad1/5/8 signaling in high-grade chondrosarcoma cells. Endoglin expression coupled to Smad1/5/8 activation could thus represent a functionally important signaling axis for the progression of chondrosarcoma and a regulator of the undifferentiated phenotype of high-grade tumor cells

Mood stabilizing drugs regulate transcription of immune, neuronal and metabolic pathway genes in Drosophila.

Science.gov (United States)

Herteleer, L; Zwarts, L; Hens, K; Forero, D; Del-Favero, J; Callaerts, P

2016-05-01

Lithium and valproate (VPA) are drugs used in the management of bipolar disorder. Even though they reportedly act on various pathways, the transcriptional targets relevant for disease mechanism and therapeutic effect remain unclear. Furthermore, multiple studies used lymphoblasts of bipolar patients as a cellular proxy, but it remains unclear whether peripheral cells provide a good readout for the effects of these drugs in the brain. We used Drosophila culture cells and adult flies to analyze the transcriptional effects of lithium and VPA and define mechanistic pathways. Transcriptional profiles were determined for Drosophila S2-cells and adult fly heads following lithium or VPA treatment. Gene ontology categories were identified using the DAVID functional annotation tool with a cut-off of p neuronal development, neuronal function, and metabolism. (i) Transcriptional effects of lithium and VPA in Drosophila S2 cells and heads show significant overlap. (ii) The overlap between transcriptional alterations in peripheral versus neuronal cells at the single gene level is negligible, but at the gene ontology and pathway level considerable overlap can be found. (iii) Lithium and VPA act on evolutionarily conserved pathways in Drosophila and mammalian models.

Genetic analysis of central carbon metabolism unveils an amino acid substitution that alters maize NAD-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase activity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nengyi Zhang

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Central carbon metabolism (CCM is a fundamental component of life. The participating genes and enzymes are thought to be structurally and functionally conserved across and within species. Association mapping utilizes a rich history of mutation and recombination to achieve high resolution mapping. Therefore, applying association mapping in maize (Zea mays ssp. mays, the most diverse model crop species, to study the genetics of CCM is a particularly attractive system.We used a maize diversity panel to test the CCM functional conservation. We found heritable variation in enzyme activity for every enzyme tested. One of these enzymes was the NAD-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH, E.C. 1.1.1.41, in which we identified a novel amino-acid substitution in a phylogenetically conserved site. Using candidate gene association mapping, we identified that this non-synonymous polymorphism was associated with IDH activity variation. The proposed mechanism for the IDH activity variation includes additional components regulating protein level. With the comparison of sequences from maize and teosinte (Zea mays ssp. Parviglumis, the maize wild ancestor, we found that some CCM genes had also been targeted for selection during maize domestication.Our results demonstrate the efficacy of association mapping for dissecting natural variation in primary metabolic pathways. The considerable genetic diversity observed in maize CCM genes underlies heritable phenotypic variation in enzyme activities and can be useful to identify putative functional sites.

Metabolic engineering of Pediococcus acidilactici BD16 for production of vanillin through ferulic acid catabolic pathway and process optimization using response surface methodology.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaur, Baljinder; Chakraborty, Debkumar; Kumar, Balvir

2014-10-01

Occurrence of feruloyl-CoA synthetase (fcs) and enoyl-CoA hydratase (ech) genes responsible for the bioconversion of ferulic acid to vanillin have been reported and characterized from Amycolatopsis sp., Streptomyces sp., and Pseudomonas sp. Attempts have been made to express these genes in Escherichia coli DH5α, E. coli JM109, and Pseudomonas fluorescens. However, none of the lactic acid bacteria strain having GRAS status was previously proposed for heterologous expression of fcs and ech genes for production of vanillin through biotechnological process. Present study reports heterologous expression of vanillin synthetic gene cassette bearing fcs and ech genes in a dairy isolate Pediococcus acidilactici BD16. After metabolic engineering, statistical optimization of process parameters that influence ferulic acid to vanillin biotransformation in the recombinant strain was carried out using central composite design of response surface methodology. After scale-up of the process, 3.14 mM vanillin was recovered from 1.08 mM ferulic acid per milligram of recombinant cell biomass within 20 min of biotransformation. From LCMS-ESI spectral analysis, a metabolic pathway of phenolic biotransformations was predicted in the recombinant P. acidilactici BD16 (fcs (+)/ech (+)).

Contribution of glycogen in supporting axon conduction in the peripheral and central nervous systems: the role of lactate

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Angus M Brown

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The role of glycogen in the central nervous system is intimately linked with the glycolytic pathway. Glycogen is synthesized from glucose, the primary substrate for glycolysis, and degraded to glucose-6-phosphate. The metabolic cost of shunting glucose via glycogen exceeds that of simple phosphorylation of glucose to glucose-6-phosphate by hexokinase; thus, there must be a metabolic advantage in utilizing this shunt pathway. The dogmatic view of glycogen as a storage depot persists, based on initial descriptions of glycogen supporting neural function in the face of aglycemia. The variable latency to conduction failure, dependent upon tissue glycogen levels, provided convincing evidence of the role played by glycogen in supporting neural function. Glycogen is located predominantly in astrocytes in the central nervous system, thus for glycogen to benefit neural elements, intercellular metabolic communication must exist in the form of astrocyte to neuron substrate transfer. Experimental evidence supports a model where glycogen is metabolized to lactate in astrocytes, with cellular expression of monocarboxylate transporters and enzymes appropriately located for lactate shuttling between astrocytes and neural elements, where lactate acts as a substrate for oxidative metabolism. Biosensor recordings have demonstrated a significant steady concentration of lactate present on the periphery of both central white matter and peripheral nerve under unstimulated baseline conditions, indicating continuous cellular efflux of lactate to the interstitium. The existence of this lactate pool argues we must reexamine the ‘on demand’ shuttling of lactate between cellular elements, and suggests continuous lactate efflux surplus to immediate neural requirements.

Thermodynamic analysis of computed pathways integrated into the metabolic networks of E. coli and Synechocystis reveals contrasting expansion potential.

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Asplund-Samuelsson, Johannes; Janasch, Markus; Hudson, Elton P

2018-01-01

Introducing biosynthetic pathways into an organism is both reliant on and challenged by endogenous biochemistry. Here we compared the expansion potential of the metabolic network in the photoautotroph Synechocystis with that of the heterotroph E. coli using the novel workflow POPPY (Prospecting Optimal Pathways with PYthon). First, E. coli and Synechocystis metabolomic and fluxomic data were combined with metabolic models to identify thermodynamic constraints on metabolite concentrations (NET analysis). Then, thousands of automatically constructed pathways were placed within each network and subjected to a network-embedded variant of the max-min driving force analysis (NEM). We found that the networks had different capabilities for imparting thermodynamic driving forces toward certain compounds. Key metabolites were constrained differently in Synechocystis due to opposing flux directions in glycolysis and carbon fixation, the forked tri-carboxylic acid cycle, and photorespiration. Furthermore, the lysine biosynthesis pathway in Synechocystis was identified as thermodynamically constrained, impacting both endogenous and heterologous reactions through low 2-oxoglutarate levels. Our study also identified important yet poorly covered areas in existing metabolomics data and provides a reference for future thermodynamics-based engineering in Synechocystis and beyond. The POPPY methodology represents a step in making optimal pathway-host matches, which is likely to become important as the practical range of host organisms is diversified. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Deep sequencing of the Camellia sinensis transcriptome revealed candidate genes for major metabolic pathways of tea-specific compounds

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Shi, CY; Yang, H; Wei, CL; Yu, O; Zhang, ZZ; Sun, J; Wan, XC

2011-01-01

Tea is one of the most popular non-alcoholic beverages worldwide. However, the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, is difficult to culture in vitro, to transform, and has a large genome, rendering little genomic information available. Recent advances in large-scale RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) provide a fast, cost-effective, and reliable approach to generate large expression datasets for functional genomic analysis, which is especially suitable for non-model species with un-sequenced genomes. Using high-throughput Illumina RNA-seq, the transcriptome from poly (A){sup +} RNA of C. sinensis was analyzed at an unprecedented depth (2.59 gigabase pairs). Approximate 34.5 million reads were obtained, trimmed, and assembled into 127,094 unigenes, with an average length of 355 bp and an N50 of 506 bp, which consisted of 788 contig clusters and 126,306 singletons. This number of unigenes was 10-fold higher than existing C. sinensis sequences deposited in GenBank (as of August 2010). Sequence similarity analyses against six public databases (Uniprot, NR and COGs at NCBI, Pfam, InterPro and KEGG) found 55,088 unigenes that could be annotated with gene descriptions, conserved protein domains, or gene ontology terms. Some of the unigenes were assigned to putative metabolic pathways. Targeted searches using these annotations identified the majority of genes associated with several primary metabolic pathways and natural product pathways that are important to tea quality, such as flavonoid, theanine and caffeine biosynthesis pathways. Novel candidate genes of these secondary pathways were discovered. Comparisons with four previously prepared cDNA libraries revealed that this transcriptome dataset has both a high degree of consistency with previous EST data and an approximate 20 times increase in coverage. Thirteen unigenes related to theanine and flavonoid synthesis were validated. Their expression patterns in different organs of the tea plant were analyzed by RT-PCR and quantitative real

Deep sequencing of the Camellia sinensis transcriptome revealed candidate genes for major metabolic pathways of tea-specific compounds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Qi

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Tea is one of the most popular non-alcoholic beverages worldwide. However, the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, is difficult to culture in vitro, to transform, and has a large genome, rendering little genomic information available. Recent advances in large-scale RNA sequencing (RNA-seq provide a fast, cost-effective, and reliable approach to generate large expression datasets for functional genomic analysis, which is especially suitable for non-model species with un-sequenced genomes. Results Using high-throughput Illumina RNA-seq, the transcriptome from poly (A+ RNA of C. sinensis was analyzed at an unprecedented depth (2.59 gigabase pairs. Approximate 34.5 million reads were obtained, trimmed, and assembled into 127,094 unigenes, with an average length of 355 bp and an N50 of 506 bp, which consisted of 788 contig clusters and 126,306 singletons. This number of unigenes was 10-fold higher than existing C. sinensis sequences deposited in GenBank (as of August 2010. Sequence similarity analyses against six public databases (Uniprot, NR and COGs at NCBI, Pfam, InterPro and KEGG found 55,088 unigenes that could be annotated with gene descriptions, conserved protein domains, or gene ontology terms. Some of the unigenes were assigned to putative metabolic pathways. Targeted searches using these annotations identified the majority of genes associated with several primary metabolic pathways and natural product pathways that are important to tea quality, such as flavonoid, theanine and caffeine biosynthesis pathways. Novel candidate genes of these secondary pathways were discovered. Comparisons with four previously prepared cDNA libraries revealed that this transcriptome dataset has both a high degree of consistency with previous EST data and an approximate 20 times increase in coverage. Thirteen unigenes related to theanine and flavonoid synthesis were validated. Their expression patterns in different organs of the tea plant were

Acute Noise Exposure Is Associated With Intrinsic Apoptosis in Murine Central Auditory Pathway

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Moritz Gröschel

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Noise that is capable of inducing the hearing loss (NIHL has a strong impact on the inner ear structures and causes early and most obvious pathophysiological changes in the auditory periphery. Several studies indicated that intrinsic apoptotic cell death mechanisms are the key factors inducing cellular degeneration immediately after noise exposure and are maintained for days or even weeks. In addition, studies demonstrated several changes in the central auditory system following noise exposure, consistent with early apoptosis-related pathologies. To clarify the underlying mechanisms, the present study focused on the noise-induced gene and protein expression of the pro-apoptotic protease activating factor-1 (APAF1 and the anti-apoptotic B-cell lymphoma 2 related protein a1a (BCL2A1A in the cochlear nucleus (CN, inferior colliculus (IC and auditory cortex (AC of the murine central auditory pathway. The expression of Bcl2a1a mRNA was upregulated immediately after trauma in all tissues investigated, whereas the protein levels were significantly reduced at least in the auditory brainstem. Conversely, acute noise has decreased the expression of Apaf1 gene along the auditory pathway. The changes in APAF1 protein level were not statistically significant. It is tempting to speculate that the acoustic overstimulation leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and induction of apoptosis by regulation of proapoptotic and antiapoptotic proteins. The inverse expression pattern on the mRNA level of both genes might reflect a protective response to decrease cellular damage. Our results indicate the immediate presence of intrinsic apoptosis following noise trauma. This, in turn, may significantly contribute to the development of central structural deficits. Auditory pathway-specific inhibition of intrinsic apoptosis could be a therapeutic approach for the treatment of acute (noise-induced hearing loss to prevent irreversible neuronal injury in auditory brain structures

Enhancing GDP-fucose production in recombinant Escherichia coli by metabolic pathway engineering.

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Zhai, Yafei; Han, Donglei; Pan, Ying; Wang, Shuaishuai; Fang, Junqiang; Wang, Peng; Liu, Xian-wei

2015-02-01

Guanosine 5'-diphosphate (GDP)-fucose is the indispensible donor substrate for fucosyltransferase-catalyzed synthesis of fucose-containing biomolecules, which have been found involving in various biological functions. In this work, the salvage pathway for GDP-fucose biosynthesis from Bacterioides fragilis was introduced into Escherichia coli. Besides, the biosynthesis of guanosine 5'-triphosphate (GTP), an essential substrate for GDP-fucose biosynthesis, was enhanced via overexpression of enzymes involved in the salvage pathway of GTP biosynthesis. The production capacities of metabolically engineered strains bearing different combinations of recombinant enzymes were compared. The shake flask fermentation of the strain expressing Fkp, Gpt, Gmk and Ndk obtained the maximum GDP-fucose content of 4.6 ± 0.22 μmol/g (dry cell mass), which is 4.2 fold that of the strain only expressing Fkp. Through fed-batch fermentation, the GDP-fucose content further rose to 6.6 ± 0.14 μmol/g (dry cell mass). In addition to a better productivity than previous fermentation processes based on the de novo pathway for GDP-fucose biosynthesis, the established schemes in this work also have the advantage to be a potential avenue to GDP-fucose analogs encompassing chemical modification on the fucose residue. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Enzyme sequence similarity improves the reaction alignment method for cross-species pathway comparison

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Ovacik, Meric A. [Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Department, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854 (United States); Androulakis, Ioannis P., E-mail: yannis@rci.rutgers.edu [Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Department, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854 (United States); Biomedical Engineering Department, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854 (United States)

2013-09-15

Pathway-based information has become an important source of information for both establishing evolutionary relationships and understanding the mode of action of a chemical or pharmaceutical among species. Cross-species comparison of pathways can address two broad questions: comparison in order to inform evolutionary relationships and to extrapolate species differences used in a number of different applications including drug and toxicity testing. Cross-species comparison of metabolic pathways is complex as there are multiple features of a pathway that can be modeled and compared. Among the various methods that have been proposed, reaction alignment has emerged as the most successful at predicting phylogenetic relationships based on NCBI taxonomy. We propose an improvement of the reaction alignment method by accounting for sequence similarity in addition to reaction alignment method. Using nine species, including human and some model organisms and test species, we evaluate the standard and improved comparison methods by analyzing glycolysis and citrate cycle pathways conservation. In addition, we demonstrate how organism comparison can be conducted by accounting for the cumulative information retrieved from nine pathways in central metabolism as well as a more complete study involving 36 pathways common in all nine species. Our results indicate that reaction alignment with enzyme sequence similarity results in a more accurate representation of pathway specific cross-species similarities and differences based on NCBI taxonomy.

Enzyme sequence similarity improves the reaction alignment method for cross-species pathway comparison

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ovacik, Meric A.; Androulakis, Ioannis P.

2013-01-01

Pathway-based information has become an important source of information for both establishing evolutionary relationships and understanding the mode of action of a chemical or pharmaceutical among species. Cross-species comparison of pathways can address two broad questions: comparison in order to inform evolutionary relationships and to extrapolate species differences used in a number of different applications including drug and toxicity testing. Cross-species comparison of metabolic pathways is complex as there are multiple features of a pathway that can be modeled and compared. Among the various methods that have been proposed, reaction alignment has emerged as the most successful at predicting phylogenetic relationships based on NCBI taxonomy. We propose an improvement of the reaction alignment method by accounting for sequence similarity in addition to reaction alignment method. Using nine species, including human and some model organisms and test species, we evaluate the standard and improved comparison methods by analyzing glycolysis and citrate cycle pathways conservation. In addition, we demonstrate how organism comparison can be conducted by accounting for the cumulative information retrieved from nine pathways in central metabolism as well as a more complete study involving 36 pathways common in all nine species. Our results indicate that reaction alignment with enzyme sequence similarity results in a more accurate representation of pathway specific cross-species similarities and differences based on NCBI taxonomy

Reprogramming One-Carbon Metabolic Pathways To Decouple l-Serine Catabolism from Cell Growth in Corynebacterium glutamicum.

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Zhang, Yun; Shang, Xiuling; Lai, Shujuan; Zhang, Yu; Hu, Qitiao; Chai, Xin; Wang, Bo; Liu, Shuwen; Wen, Tingyi

2018-02-16

l-Serine, the principal one-carbon source for DNA biosynthesis, is difficult for microorganisms to accumulate due to the coupling of l-serine catabolism and microbial growth. Here, we reprogrammed the one-carbon unit metabolic pathways in Corynebacterium glutamicum to decouple l-serine catabolism from cell growth. In silico model-based simulation showed a negative influence on glyA-encoding serine hydroxymethyltransferase flux with l-serine productivity. Attenuation of glyA transcription resulted in increased l-serine accumulation, and a decrease in purine pools, poor growth and longer cell shapes. The gcvTHP-encoded glycine cleavage (Gcv) system from Escherichia coli was introduced into C. glutamicum, allowing glycine-derived 13 CH 2 to be assimilated into intracellular purine synthesis, which resulted in an increased amount of one-carbon units. Gcv introduction not only restored cell viability and morphology but also increased l-serine accumulation. Moreover, comparative proteomic analysis indicated that abundance changes of the enzymes involved in one-carbon unit cycles might be responsible for maintaining one-carbon unit homeostasis. Reprogramming of the one-carbon metabolic pathways allowed cells to reach a comparable growth rate to accumulate 13.21 g/L l-serine by fed-batch fermentation in minimal medium. This novel strategy provides new insights into the regulation of cellular properties and essential metabolite accumulation by introducing an extrinsic pathway.

Connecting metabolism and reproduction: roles of central energy sensors and key molecular mediators.

Science.gov (United States)

Roa, Juan; Tena-Sempere, Manuel

2014-11-01

It is well established that pubertal activation of the reproductive axis and maintenance of fertility are critically dependent on the magnitude of body energy reserves and the metabolic state of the organism. Hence, conditions of impaired energy homeostasis often result in deregulation of puberty and reproduction, whereas gonadal dysfunction can be associated with the worsening of the metabolic profile and, eventually, changes in body weight. While much progress has taken place in our knowledge about the neuroendocrine mechanisms linking metabolism and reproduction, our understanding of how such dynamic interplay happens is still incomplete. As paradigmatic example, much has been learned in the last two decades on the reproductive roles of key metabolic hormones (such as leptin, insulin and ghrelin), their brain targets and the major transmitters and neuropeptides involved. Yet, the molecular mechanisms whereby metabolic information is translated and engages into the reproductive circuits remain largely unsolved. In this work, we will summarize recent developments in the characterization of the putative central roles of key cellular energy sensors, such as mTOR, in this phenomenon, and will relate these with other molecular mechanisms likely contributing to the brain coupling of energy balance and fertility. In doing so, we aim to provide an updated view of an area that, despite still underdeveloped, may be critically important to fully understand how reproduction and metabolism are tightly connected in health and disease. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pathway Design, Engineering, and Optimization.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia-Ruiz, Eva; HamediRad, Mohammad; Zhao, Huimin

The microbial metabolic versatility found in nature has inspired scientists to create microorganisms capable of producing value-added compounds. Many endeavors have been made to transfer and/or combine pathways, existing or even engineered enzymes with new function to tractable microorganisms to generate new metabolic routes for drug, biofuel, and specialty chemical production. However, the success of these pathways can be impeded by different complications from an inherent failure of the pathway to cell perturbations. Pursuing ways to overcome these shortcomings, a wide variety of strategies have been developed. This chapter will review the computational algorithms and experimental tools used to design efficient metabolic routes, and construct and optimize biochemical pathways to produce chemicals of high interest.

Actionable Metabolic Pathways in Heart Failure and Cancer—Lessons From Cancer Cell Metabolism

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Anja Karlstaedt

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Recent advances in cancer cell metabolism provide unprecedented opportunities for a new understanding of heart metabolism and may offer new approaches for the treatment of heart failure. Key questions driving the cancer field to understand how tumor cells reprogram metabolism and to benefit tumorigenesis are also applicable to the heart. Recent experimental and conceptual advances in cancer cell metabolism provide the cardiovascular field with the unique opportunity to target metabolism. This review compares cancer cell metabolism and cardiac metabolism with an emphasis on strategies of cellular adaptation, and how to exploit metabolic changes for therapeutic benefit.

Prediction of Metabolic Pathway Involvement in Prokaryotic UniProtKB Data by Association Rule Mining

KAUST Repository

Boudellioua, Imene; Saidi, Rabie; Hoehndorf, Robert; Martin, Maria J.; Solovyev, Victor

2016-01-01

The widening gap between known proteins and their functions has encouraged the development of methods to automatically infer annotations. Automatic functional annotation of proteins is expected to meet the conflicting requirements of maximizing annotation coverage, while minimizing erroneous functional assignments. This trade-off imposes a great challenge in designing intelligent systems to tackle the problem of automatic protein annotation. In this work, we present a system that utilizes rule mining techniques to predict metabolic pathways in prokaryotes. The resulting knowledge represents predictive models that assign pathway involvement to UniProtKB entries. We carried out an evaluation study of our system performance using cross-validation technique. We found that it achieved very promising results in pathway identification with an F1-measure of 0.982 and an AUC of 0.987. Our prediction models were then successfully applied to 6.2 million UniProtKB/TrEMBL reference proteome entries of prokaryotes. As a result, 663,724 entries were covered, where 436,510 of them lacked any previous pathway annotations.

Prediction of Metabolic Pathway Involvement in Prokaryotic UniProtKB Data by Association Rule Mining

KAUST Repository

Boudellioua, Imene

2016-07-08

The widening gap between known proteins and their functions has encouraged the development of methods to automatically infer annotations. Automatic functional annotation of proteins is expected to meet the conflicting requirements of maximizing annotation coverage, while minimizing erroneous functional assignments. This trade-off imposes a great challenge in designing intelligent systems to tackle the problem of automatic protein annotation. In this work, we present a system that utilizes rule mining techniques to predict metabolic pathways in prokaryotes. The resulting knowledge represents predictive models that assign pathway involvement to UniProtKB entries. We carried out an evaluation study of our system performance using cross-validation technique. We found that it achieved very promising results in pathway identification with an F1-measure of 0.982 and an AUC of 0.987. Our prediction models were then successfully applied to 6.2 million UniProtKB/TrEMBL reference proteome entries of prokaryotes. As a result, 663,724 entries were covered, where 436,510 of them lacked any previous pathway annotations.

GABA metabolism pathway genes, UGA1 and GAD1, regulate replicative lifespan in Saccharomycescerevisiae

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Kamei, Yuka; Tamura, Takayuki [Department of Bioscience, Faculty of Bioscience, Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology, 1266 Tamura, Nagahama, Shiga 526-0829 (Japan); Yoshida, Ryo [Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); Ohta, Shinji [Department of Bioscience, Faculty of Bioscience, Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology, 1266 Tamura, Nagahama, Shiga 526-0829 (Japan); Fukusaki, Eiichiro [Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); Mukai, Yukio, E-mail: y_mukai@nagahama-i-bio.ac.jp [Department of Bioscience, Faculty of Bioscience, Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology, 1266 Tamura, Nagahama, Shiga 526-0829 (Japan)

2011-04-01

Highlights: {yields}We demonstrate that two genes in the yeast GABA metabolism pathway affect aging. {yields} Deletion of the UGA1 or GAD1 genes extends replicative lifespan. {yields} Addition of GABA to wild-type cultures has no effect on lifespan. {yields} Intracellular GABA levels do not differ in longevity mutants and wild-type cells. {yields} Levels of tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates positively correlate with lifespan. -- Abstract: Many of the genes involved in aging have been identified in organisms ranging from yeast to human. Our previous study showed that deletion of the UGA3 gene-which encodes a zinc-finger transcription factor necessary for {gamma}-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-dependent induction of the UGA1 (GABA aminotransferase), UGA2 (succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase), and UGA4 (GABA permease) genes-extends replicative lifespan in the budding yeast Saccharomycescerevisiae. Here, we found that deletion of UGA1 lengthened the lifespan, as did deletion of UGA3; in contrast, strains with UGA2 or UGA4 deletions exhibited no lifespan extension. The {Delta}uga1 strain cannot deaminate GABA to succinate semialdehyde. Deletion of GAD1, which encodes the glutamate decarboxylase that converts glutamate into GABA, also increased lifespan. Therefore, two genes in the GABA metabolism pathway, UGA1 and GAD1, were identified as aging genes. Unexpectedly, intracellular GABA levels in mutant cells (except for {Delta}uga2 cells) did not differ from those in wild-type cells. Addition of GABA to culture media, which induces transcription of the UGA structural genes, had no effect on replicative lifespan of wild-type cells. Multivariate analysis of {sup 1}H nuclear magnetic resonance spectra for the whole-cell metabolite levels demonstrated a separation between long-lived and normal-lived strains. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of identified metabolites showed that levels of tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates positively correlated with lifespan

GABA metabolism pathway genes, UGA1 and GAD1, regulate replicative lifespan in Saccharomycescerevisiae

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamei, Yuka; Tamura, Takayuki; Yoshida, Ryo; Ohta, Shinji; Fukusaki, Eiichiro; Mukai, Yukio

2011-01-01

Highlights: →We demonstrate that two genes in the yeast GABA metabolism pathway affect aging. → Deletion of the UGA1 or GAD1 genes extends replicative lifespan. → Addition of GABA to wild-type cultures has no effect on lifespan. → Intracellular GABA levels do not differ in longevity mutants and wild-type cells. → Levels of tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates positively correlate with lifespan. -- Abstract: Many of the genes involved in aging have been identified in organisms ranging from yeast to human. Our previous study showed that deletion of the UGA3 gene-which encodes a zinc-finger transcription factor necessary for γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-dependent induction of the UGA1 (GABA aminotransferase), UGA2 (succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase), and UGA4 (GABA permease) genes-extends replicative lifespan in the budding yeast Saccharomycescerevisiae. Here, we found that deletion of UGA1 lengthened the lifespan, as did deletion of UGA3; in contrast, strains with UGA2 or UGA4 deletions exhibited no lifespan extension. The Δuga1 strain cannot deaminate GABA to succinate semialdehyde. Deletion of GAD1, which encodes the glutamate decarboxylase that converts glutamate into GABA, also increased lifespan. Therefore, two genes in the GABA metabolism pathway, UGA1 and GAD1, were identified as aging genes. Unexpectedly, intracellular GABA levels in mutant cells (except for Δuga2 cells) did not differ from those in wild-type cells. Addition of GABA to culture media, which induces transcription of the UGA structural genes, had no effect on replicative lifespan of wild-type cells. Multivariate analysis of 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance spectra for the whole-cell metabolite levels demonstrated a separation between long-lived and normal-lived strains. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of identified metabolites showed that levels of tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates positively correlated with lifespan extension. These results strongly suggest

Metagenomic sequencing reveals altered metabolic pathways in the oral microbiota of sailors during a long sea voyage.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Weiwei; Zhang, Ze; Liu, Cuihua; Qiao, Yuanyuan; Zhou, Dianrong; Qu, Jia; An, Huaijie; Xiong, Ming; Zhu, Zhiming; Zhao, Xiaohang

2015-03-16

Seafaring is a difficult occupation, and sailors face higher health risks than individuals on land. Commensal microbiota participates in the host immune system and metabolism, reflecting the host's health condition. However, the interaction mechanisms between the microbiota and the host's health condition remain unclear. This study reports the influence of long sea voyages on human health by utilising a metagenomic analysis of variation in the microbiota of the buccal mucosa. Paired samples collected before and after a sea-voyage were analysed. After more than 120 days of ocean sailing, the oral microbial diversity of sailors was reduced by approximately 5 fold, and the levels of several pathogens (e.g., Streptococcus pneumonia) increased. Moreover, 69.46% of the identified microbial sequences were unclassified microbiota. Notably, several metabolic pathways were dramatically decreased, including folate biosynthesis, carbohydrate, lipid and amino acid pathways. Clinical examination of the hosts confirmed the identified metabolic changes, as demonstrated by decreased serum levels of haemoglobin and folic acid, a decreased neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and increased levels of triglycerides, cholesterol and homocysteine, which are consistent with the observed microbial variation. Our study suggests that oral mucosal bacteria may reflect host health conditions and could provide approaches for improving the health of sailors.

Identification of Proteins Involved in Carbohydrate Metabolism and Energy Metabolism Pathways and Their Regulation of Cytoplasmic Male Sterility in Wheat

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Xingxia Geng

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS where no functional pollen is produced has important roles in wheat breeding. The anther is a unique organ for male gametogenesis and its abnormal development can cause male sterility. However, the mechanisms and regulatory networks related to plant male sterility are poorly understood. In this study, we conducted comparative analyses using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ of the pollen proteins in a CMS line and its wheat maintainer. Differentially abundant proteins (DAPs were analyzed based on Gene Ontology classifications, metabolic pathways and transcriptional regulation networks using Blast2GO. We identified 5570 proteins based on 23,277 peptides, which matched with 73,688 spectra, including proteins in key pathways such as glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, pyruvate kinase and 6-phosphofructokinase 1 in the glycolysis pathway, isocitrate dehydrogenase and citrate synthase in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH-dehydrogenase and adenosine-triphosphate (ATP synthases in the oxidative phosphorylation pathway. These proteins may comprise a network that regulates male sterility in wheat. Quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR analysis, ATP assays and total sugar assays validated the iTRAQ results. These DAPs could be associated with abnormal pollen grain formation and male sterility. Our findings provide insights into the molecular mechanism related to male sterility in wheat.

Identification of Proteins Involved in Carbohydrate Metabolism and Energy Metabolism Pathways and Their Regulation of Cytoplasmic Male Sterility in Wheat.

Science.gov (United States)

Geng, Xingxia; Ye, Jiali; Yang, Xuetong; Li, Sha; Zhang, Lingli; Song, Xiyue

2018-01-23

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) where no functional pollen is produced has important roles in wheat breeding. The anther is a unique organ for male gametogenesis and its abnormal development can cause male sterility. However, the mechanisms and regulatory networks related to plant male sterility are poorly understood. In this study, we conducted comparative analyses using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) of the pollen proteins in a CMS line and its wheat maintainer. Differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) were analyzed based on Gene Ontology classifications, metabolic pathways and transcriptional regulation networks using Blast2GO. We identified 5570 proteins based on 23,277 peptides, which matched with 73,688 spectra, including proteins in key pathways such as glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, pyruvate kinase and 6-phosphofructokinase 1 in the glycolysis pathway, isocitrate dehydrogenase and citrate synthase in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH)-dehydrogenase and adenosine-triphosphate (ATP) synthases in the oxidative phosphorylation pathway. These proteins may comprise a network that regulates male sterility in wheat. Quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis, ATP assays and total sugar assays validated the iTRAQ results. These DAPs could be associated with abnormal pollen grain formation and male sterility. Our findings provide insights into the molecular mechanism related to male sterility in wheat.

Exposure to atrazine affects the expression of key genes in metabolic pathways integral to energy homeostasis in Xenopus laevis tadpoles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zaya, Renee M.; Amini, Zakariya; Whitaker, Ashley S.; Ide, Charles F.

2011-01-01

In our laboratory, Xenopus laevis tadpoles exposed throughout development to 200 or 400 μg/L atrazine, concentrations reported to periodically occur in puddles, vernal ponds and runoff soon after application, were smaller and had smaller fat bodies (the tadpole's lipid storage organ) than controls. It was hypothesized that these changes were due to atrazine-related perturbations of energy homeostasis. To investigate this hypothesis, selected metabolic responses to exposure at the transcriptional and biochemical levels in atrazine-exposed tadpoles were measured. DNA microarray technology was used to determine which metabolic pathways were affected after developmental exposure to 400 μg/L atrazine. From these data, genes representative of the affected pathways were selected for assay using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to measure changes in expression during a 2-week exposure to 400 μg/L. Finally, ATP levels were measured from tadpoles both early in and at termination of exposure to 200 and 400 μg/L. Microarray analysis revealed significant differential gene expression in metabolic pathways involved with energy homeostasis. Pathways with increased transcription were associated with the conversion of lipids and proteins into energy. Pathways with decreased transcription were associated with carbohydrate metabolism, fat storage, and protein synthesis. Using qRT-PCR, changes in gene expression indicative of an early stress response to atrazine were noted. Exposed tadpoles had significant decreases in acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (AD) and glucocorticoid receptor protein (GR) mRNA after 24 h of exposure, and near-significant (p = 0.07) increases in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor β (PPAR-β) mRNA by 72 h. Decreases in AD suggested decreases in fatty acid β-oxidation while decreases in GR may have been a receptor desensitization response to a glucocorticoid surge. Involvement of PPAR-β, an energy homeostasis regulatory molecule

Exposure to atrazine affects the expression of key genes in metabolic pathways integral to energy homeostasis in Xenopus laevis tadpoles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zaya, Renee M., E-mail: renee.zaya@wmich.edu [Great Lakes Environmental and Molecular Sciences Center, Department of Biological Sciences, 3425 Wood Hall, Western Michigan University, 1903 West Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49008 (United States); Amini, Zakariya, E-mail: zakariya.amini@wmich.edu [Great Lakes Environmental and Molecular Sciences Center, Department of Biological Sciences, 3425 Wood Hall, Western Michigan University, 1903 West Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49008 (United States); Whitaker, Ashley S., E-mail: ashley.s.whitaker@wmich.edu [Great Lakes Environmental and Molecular Sciences Center, Department of Biological Sciences, 3425 Wood Hall, Western Michigan University, 1903 West Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49008 (United States); Ide, Charles F., E-mail: charles.ide@wmich.edu [Great Lakes Environmental and Molecular Sciences Center, Department of Biological Sciences, 3425 Wood Hall, Western Michigan University, 1903 West Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49008 (United States)

2011-08-15

In our laboratory, Xenopus laevis tadpoles exposed throughout development to 200 or 400 {mu}g/L atrazine, concentrations reported to periodically occur in puddles, vernal ponds and runoff soon after application, were smaller and had smaller fat bodies (the tadpole's lipid storage organ) than controls. It was hypothesized that these changes were due to atrazine-related perturbations of energy homeostasis. To investigate this hypothesis, selected metabolic responses to exposure at the transcriptional and biochemical levels in atrazine-exposed tadpoles were measured. DNA microarray technology was used to determine which metabolic pathways were affected after developmental exposure to 400 {mu}g/L atrazine. From these data, genes representative of the affected pathways were selected for assay using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to measure changes in expression during a 2-week exposure to 400 {mu}g/L. Finally, ATP levels were measured from tadpoles both early in and at termination of exposure to 200 and 400 {mu}g/L. Microarray analysis revealed significant differential gene expression in metabolic pathways involved with energy homeostasis. Pathways with increased transcription were associated with the conversion of lipids and proteins into energy. Pathways with decreased transcription were associated with carbohydrate metabolism, fat storage, and protein synthesis. Using qRT-PCR, changes in gene expression indicative of an early stress response to atrazine were noted. Exposed tadpoles had significant decreases in acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (AD) and glucocorticoid receptor protein (GR) mRNA after 24 h of exposure, and near-significant (p = 0.07) increases in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor {beta} (PPAR-{beta}) mRNA by 72 h. Decreases in AD suggested decreases in fatty acid {beta}-oxidation while decreases in GR may have been a receptor desensitization response to a glucocorticoid surge. Involvement of PPAR-{beta}, an energy

Effects of Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy on Central Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in Indian Adults- A Prospective Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Sethi, Pulkit; Thillai, Manoj; Nain, Prabhdeep Singh; Ahuja, Ashish; Vayoth, Sudheer Othiyil; Khurana, Preetika

2017-01-01

Increasing incidence of obesity in Indian population has led to an exponential rise in the number of bariatric operations performed annually. Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy (LSG) has been proposed to cause rapid remission of Type 2 Diabetes Melitus (T2DM) and metabolic syndrome in a weight loss independent manner. To evaluate the effects of LSG on metabolic syndrome and central obesity in morbidly and severely obese Indian adults. Material and Methods: Study was conducted on 91 morbidly obese [Body Mass Index (BMI)>40 kg/m 2 ] and severely obese (BMI>35 kg/m 2 ) individuals who were suffering from diabetes, hypertension or dyslipidemia. The patients were followed up for six months and the trends of glycaemic control, mean blood pressure, lipid profile, weight loss parameters and changes in parameters of central obesity were studied. Weight loss was significant at three months postsurgery and was sustained through six months. There was significant improvement in glycaemic control leading to reduction in need for oral hypoglycaemic agents or insulin in majority of them and even discontinuation of these medications in few patients. Hypertension and dyslipidemia also showed an improving trend through six months postsurgery. There was a significant impact on reduction of central obesity in these patients as marked by significant reduction in waist to hip ratio. LSG produces sustainable weight loss with significant improvement in glycaemic status and control of metabolic syndrome in severe to morbidly obese patients. LSG is also efficacious in reducing central obesity in Indian population which is a major depressive ailment amongst obese individuals.

Tumor Metabolism of Malignant Gliomas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ru, Peng; Williams, Terence M.; Chakravarti, Arnab; Guo, Deliang, E-mail: deliang.guo@osumc.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center & Arthur G James Cancer Hospital, Columbus, OH 43012 (United States)

2013-11-08

Constitutively activated oncogenic signaling via genetic mutations such as in the EGFR/PI3K/Akt and Ras/RAF/MEK pathways has been recognized as a major driver for tumorigenesis in most cancers. Recent insights into tumor metabolism have further revealed that oncogenic signaling pathways directly promote metabolic reprogramming to upregulate biosynthesis of lipids, carbohydrates, protein, DNA and RNA, leading to enhanced growth of human tumors. Therefore, targeting cell metabolism has become a novel direction for drug development in oncology. In malignant gliomas, metabolism pathways of glucose, glutamine and lipid are significantly reprogrammed. Moreover, molecular mechanisms causing these metabolic changes are just starting to be unraveled. In this review, we will summarize recent studies revealing critical gene alterations that lead to metabolic changes in malignant gliomas, and also discuss promising therapeutic strategies via targeting the key players in metabolic regulation.

Tumor Metabolism of Malignant Gliomas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ru, Peng; Williams, Terence M.; Chakravarti, Arnab; Guo, Deliang

2013-01-01

Constitutively activated oncogenic signaling via genetic mutations such as in the EGFR/PI3K/Akt and Ras/RAF/MEK pathways has been recognized as a major driver for tumorigenesis in most cancers. Recent insights into tumor metabolism have further revealed that oncogenic signaling pathways directly promote metabolic reprogramming to upregulate biosynthesis of lipids, carbohydrates, protein, DNA and RNA, leading to enhanced growth of human tumors. Therefore, targeting cell metabolism has become a novel direction for drug development in oncology. In malignant gliomas, metabolism pathways of glucose, glutamine and lipid are significantly reprogrammed. Moreover, molecular mechanisms causing these metabolic changes are just starting to be unraveled. In this review, we will summarize recent studies revealing critical gene alterations that lead to metabolic changes in malignant gliomas, and also discuss promising therapeutic strategies via targeting the key players in metabolic regulation

Metabolic flux profiling of recombinant protein secreting Pichia pastoris growing on glucose:methanol mixtures

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris has emerged as one of the most promising yeast hosts for the production of heterologous proteins. Mixed feeds of methanol and a multicarbon source instead of methanol as sole carbon source have been shown to improve product productivities and alleviate metabolic burden derived from protein production. Nevertheless, systematic quantitative studies on the relationships between the central metabolism and recombinant protein production in P. pastoris are still rather limited, particularly when growing this yeast on mixed carbon sources, thus hampering future metabolic network engineering strategies for improved protein production. Results The metabolic flux distribution in the central metabolism of P. pastoris growing on a mixed feed of glucose and methanol was analyzed by Metabolic Flux Analysis (MFA) using 13C-NMR-derived constraints. For this purpose, we defined new flux ratios for methanol assimilation pathways in P. pastoris cells growing on glucose:methanol mixtures. By using this experimental approach, the metabolic burden caused by the overexpression and secretion of a Rhizopus oryzae lipase (Rol) in P. pastoris was further analyzed. This protein has been previously shown to trigger the unfolded protein response in P. pastoris. A series of 13C-tracer experiments were performed on aerobic chemostat cultivations with a control and two different Rol producing strains growing at a dilution rate of 0.09 h−1 using a glucose:methanol 80:20 (w/w) mix as carbon source. The MFA performed in this study reveals a significant redistristribution of carbon fluxes in the central carbon metabolism when comparing the two recombinant strains vs the control strain, reflected in increased glycolytic, TCA cycle and NADH regeneration fluxes, as well as higher methanol dissimilation rates. Conclusions Overall, a further 13C-based MFA development to characterise the central metabolism of methylotrophic yeasts when growing on mixed

Metabolic flux profiling of recombinant protein secreting Pichia pastoris growing on glucose:methanol mixtures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jordà Joel

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris has emerged as one of the most promising yeast hosts for the production of heterologous proteins. Mixed feeds of methanol and a multicarbon source instead of methanol as sole carbon source have been shown to improve product productivities and alleviate metabolic burden derived from protein production. Nevertheless, systematic quantitative studies on the relationships between the central metabolism and recombinant protein production in P. pastoris are still rather limited, particularly when growing this yeast on mixed carbon sources, thus hampering future metabolic network engineering strategies for improved protein production. Results The metabolic flux distribution in the central metabolism of P. pastoris growing on a mixed feed of glucose and methanol was analyzed by Metabolic Flux Analysis (MFA using 13C-NMR-derived constraints. For this purpose, we defined new flux ratios for methanol assimilation pathways in P. pastoris cells growing on glucose:methanol mixtures. By using this experimental approach, the metabolic burden caused by the overexpression and secretion of a Rhizopus oryzae lipase (Rol in P. pastoris was further analyzed. This protein has been previously shown to trigger the unfolded protein response in P. pastoris. A series of 13C-tracer experiments were performed on aerobic chemostat cultivations with a control and two different Rol producing strains growing at a dilution rate of 0.09 h−1 using a glucose:methanol 80:20 (w/w mix as carbon source. The MFA performed in this study reveals a significant redistristribution of carbon fluxes in the central carbon metabolism when comparing the two recombinant strains vs the control strain, reflected in increased glycolytic, TCA cycle and NADH regeneration fluxes, as well as higher methanol dissimilation rates. Conclusions Overall, a further 13C-based MFA development to characterise the central metabolism of methylotrophic

Quantitative Multilevel Analysis of Central Metabolism in Developing Oilseeds of Oilseed Rape During In Vitro Culture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schwender, Jorg [Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Hebbelmann, Inga [Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Heinzel, Nicholas [Leibniz Inst. of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben (Germany); Hildebrandt, Tatjana [Univ. of Hannover (Germany); Rogers, Alistair [Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Naik, Dhiraj [Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Indian Inst. of Advanced Research Koba, Gujarat (India); Klapperstuck, Matthias [Monash Univ., Melbourne, VIC (Australia); Braun, Hans -Peter [Univ. of Hannover (Germany); Schreiber, Falk [Monash Univ., Melbourne, VIC (Australia); Univ. Halle-Wittenberg, Melbourne (Australia); Denolf, Peter [Bayer CropScience (Belgium); Borisjuk, Ljudmilla [Leibniz Inst. of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben (Germany); Rolletschek, Hardy [Leibniz Inst. of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben (Germany)

2015-07-01

Seeds provide the basis for many food, feed, and fuel products. Continued increases in seed yield, composition, and quality require an improved understanding of how the developing seed converts carbon and nitrogen supplies into storage. Current knowledge of this process is often based on the premise that transcriptional regulation directly translates via enzyme concentration into flux. In an attempt to highlight metabolic control, we explore genotypic differences in carbon partitioning for in vitro cultured developing embryos of oilseed rape (Brassica napus). We determined biomass composition as well as 79 net fluxes, the levels of 77 metabolites, and 26 enzyme activities with specific focus on central metabolism in nine selected germplasm accessions. We observed a tradeoff between the biomass component fractions of lipid and starch. With increasing lipid content over the spectrum of genotypes, plastidic fatty acid synthesis and glycolytic flux increased concomitantly, while glycolytic intermediates decreased. The lipid/starch tradeoff was not reflected at the proteome level, pointing to the significance of (posttranslational) metabolic control. Enzyme activity/flux and metabolite/flux correlations suggest that plastidic pyruvate kinase exerts flux control and that the lipid/starch tradeoff is most likely mediated by allosteric feedback regulation of phosphofructokinase and ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase. Also, quantitative data were used to calculate in vivo mass action ratios, reaction equilibria, and metabolite turnover times. Compounds like cyclic 3',5'-AMP and sucrose-6-phosphate were identified to potentially be involved in so far unknown mechanisms of metabolic control. This study provides a rich source of quantitative data for those studying central metabolism..

Metabolic control of puberty: roles of leptin and kisspeptins.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez-Garrido, Miguel A; Tena-Sempere, Manuel

2013-07-01

This article is part of a Special Issue "Puberty and Adolescence". Reproduction is an energy-demanding function. Accordingly, puberty is metabolically gated, as a means to prevent fertility in conditions of energy insufficiency. In addition, obesity has been shown to impact the timing of puberty and may be among the causes for the earlier trends of pubertal age reported in various countries. The metabolic control of puberty in such a spectrum of situations, ranging from energy deficit to extreme overweight, is the result of the concerted action of different peripheral hormones and central transmitters that sense the metabolic state of the organism and transmit this information to the various elements of the reproductive axis, mainly the GnRH neurons. Among the peripheral signals involved, the adipose hormone, leptin, is known to play an essential role in the regulation of puberty, especially in females. Yet, although it is clear that the effects of leptin on puberty onset are predominantly permissive and mainly conducted at central (hypothalamic) levels, the primary sites and mechanisms of action of leptin within the reproductive brain remain unsolved. In this context, neurons expressing kisspeptins, the products of the Kiss1 gene that have emerged recently as essential upstream regulators of GnRH neurons, operate as key sensors of the metabolic state and funnel of the reproductive effects of leptin. Yet, much debate has arisen recently on whether the putative actions of leptin on the Kiss1 system are actually indirect and/or may primarily target Kiss1-independent pathways, such as those originating from the ventral premmamilary nucleus. Moreover, evidence has been presented for extra-hypothalamic or peripheral actions of leptin, including direct gonadal effects, which may contribute to the metabolic control of reproduction in extreme body weight conditions. In this work, we will critically review the experimental evidence supporting a role of leptin, kisspeptin

A simplified method for power-law modelling of metabolic pathways from time-course data and steady-state flux profiles

OpenAIRE

Kitayama, Tomoya; Kinoshita, Ayako; Sugimoto, Masahiro; Nakayama, Yoichi; Tomita, Masaru

2006-01-01

Abstract Background In order to improve understanding of metabolic systems there have been attempts to construct S-system models from time courses. Conventionally, non-linear curve-fitting algorithms have been used for modelling, because of the non-linear properties of parameter estimation from time series. However, the huge iterative calculations required have hindered the development of large-scale metabolic pathway models. To solve this problem we propose a novel method involving power-law...

Cancer metabolism and the Warburg effect: the role of HIF-1 and PI3K.

Science.gov (United States)

Courtnay, Rupert; Ngo, Darleen C; Malik, Neha; Ververis, Katherine; Tortorella, Stephanie M; Karagiannis, Tom C

2015-04-01

Cancer cells have been shown to have altered metabolism when compared to normal non-malignant cells. The Warburg effect describes a phenomenon in which cancer cells preferentially metabolize glucose by glycolysis, producing lactate as an end product, despite being the presence of oxygen. The phenomenon was first described by Otto Warburg in the 1920s, and has resurfaced as a controversial theory, with both supportive and opposing arguments. The biochemical aspects of the Warburg effect outline a strong explanation for the cause of cancer cell proliferation, by providing the biological requirements for a cell to grow. Studies have shown that pathways such as phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin (PI3K/Akt/mTOR) as well as hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) are central regulators of glycolysis, cancer metabolism and cancer cell proliferation. Studies have shown that PI3K signaling pathways have a role in many cellular processes such as metabolism, inflammation, cell survival, motility and cancer progression. Herein, the cellular aspects of the PI3K pathway are described, as well as the influence HIF has on cancer cell metabolism. HIF-1 activation has been related to angiogenesis, erythropoiesis and modulation of key enzymes involved in aerobic glycolysis, thereby modulating key processes required for the Warburg effect. In this review we discuss the molecular aspects of the Warburg effect with a particular emphasis on the role of the HIF-1 and the PI3K pathway.

Interdisciplinary Pathways for Urban Metabolism Research

Science.gov (United States)

Newell, J. P.

2011-12-01

With its rapid rise as a metaphor to express coupled natural-human systems in cities, the concept of urban metabolism is evolving into a series of relatively distinct research frameworks amongst various disciplines, with varying definitions, theories, models, and emphases. In industrial ecology, housed primarily within the disciplinary domain of engineering, urban metabolism research has focused on quantifying material and energy flows into, within, and out of cities, using methodologies such as material flow analysis and life cycle assessment. In the field of urban ecology, which is strongly influenced by ecology and urban planning, research focus has been placed on understanding and modeling the complex patterns and processes of human-ecological systems within urban areas. Finally, in political ecology, closely aligned with human geography and anthropology, scholars theorize about the interwoven knots of social and natural processes, material flows, and spatial structures that form the urban metabolism. This paper offers three potential interdisciplinary urban metabolism research tracks that might integrate elements of these three "ecologies," thereby bridging engineering and the social and physical sciences. First, it presents the idea of infrastructure ecology, which explores the complex, emergent interdependencies between gray (water and wastewater, transportation, etc) and green (e.g. parks, greenways) infrastructure systems, as nested within a broader socio-economic context. For cities to be sustainable and resilient over time-space, the theory follows, these is a need to understand and redesign these infrastructure linkages. Second, there is the concept of an urban-scale carbon metabolism model which integrates consumption-based material flow analysis (including goods, water, and materials), with the carbon sink and source dynamics of the built environment (e.g. buildings, etc) and urban ecosystems. Finally, there is the political ecology of the material

A free radical-generating system regulates AβPP metabolism/processing: involvement of the ubiquitin/proteasome and autophagy/lysosome pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Recuero, María; Munive, Victor A; Sastre, Isabel; Aldudo, Jesús; Valdivieso, Fernando; Bullido, María J

2013-01-01

Oxidative stress is an early event in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We previously reported that, in SK-N-MC cells, the xanthine/xanthine oxidase (X-XOD) free radical generating system regulates the metabolism/processing of the amyloid-β protein precursor (AβPP). Oxidative stress alters the two main cellular proteolytic machineries, the ubiquitin/proteasome (UPS) and the autophagy/lysosome systems, and recent studies have established connections between the malfunctioning of these and the pathogenesis of AD. The aim of the present work was to examine the involvement of these proteolytic systems in the regulation of AβPP metabolism by X-XOD. The proteasome inhibitor MG132 was found to accelerate the metabolism/processing of AβPP promoted by X-XOD because it significantly enhances the secretion of α-secretase-cleaved soluble AβPP and also the levels of both carboxy-terminal fragments (CTFs) produced by α- and β-secretase. Further, MG132 modulated the intracellular accumulation of holo-AβPP and/or AβPP CTFs. This indicates that the X-XOD modulation of AβPP metabolism/processing involves the UPS pathway. With respect to the autophagy/lysosome pathway, the AβPP processing and intracellular location patterns induced by X-XOD treatment closely resembled those produced by the lysosome inhibitor ammonium chloride. The present results suggest that the regulation of AβPP metabolism/processing by mild oxidative stress requires UPS activity with a simultaneous reduction in that of the autophagy/lysosome system.

BMP and TGFbeta pathways in human central chondrosarcoma: enhanced endoglin and Smad 1 signaling in high grade tumors

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background As major regulators of normal chondrogenesis, the bone morphogenic protein (BMP) and transforming growth factor β (TGFB) signaling pathways may be involved in the development and progression of central chondrosarcoma. In order to uncover their possible implication, the aim of this study was to perform a systematic quantitative study of the expression of BMPs, TGFBs and their receptors and to assess activity of the corresponding pathways in central chondrosarcoma. Methods Gene expression analysis was performed by quantitative RT-PCR in 26 central chondrosarcoma and 6 healthy articular cartilage samples. Expression of endoglin and nuclear localization of phosphorylated Smad1/5/8 and Smad2 was assessed by immunohistochemical analysis. Results The expression of TGFB3 and of the activin receptor-like kinase ALK2 was found to be significantly higher in grade III compared to grade I chondrosarcoma. Nuclear phosphorylated Smad1/5/8 and Smad2 were found in all tumors analyzed and the activity of both signaling pathways was confirmed by functional reporter assays in 2 chondrosarcoma cell lines. Immunohistochemical analysis furthermore revealed that phosphorylated Smad1/5/8 and endoglin expression were significantly higher in high-grade compared to low-grade chondrosarcoma and correlated to each other. Conclusions The BMP and TGFβ signaling pathways were found to be active in central chondrosarcoma cells. The correlation of Smad1/5/8 activity to endoglin expression suggests that, as described in other cell types, endoglin could enhance Smad1/5/8 signaling in high-grade chondrosarcoma cells. Endoglin expression coupled to Smad1/5/8 activation could thus represent a functionally important signaling axis for the progression of chondrosarcoma and a regulator of the undifferentiated phenotype of high-grade tumor cells. PMID:23088614

Intrinsic and Antipsychotic Drug-Induced Metabolic Dysfunction in Schizophrenia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zachary Freyberg

2017-07-01

Full Text Available For decades, there have been observations demonstrating significant metabolic disturbances in people with schizophrenia including clinically relevant weight gain, hypertension, and disturbances in glucose and lipid homeostasis. Many of these findings pre-date the use of antipsychotic drugs (APDs which on their own are also strongly associated with metabolic side effects. The combination of APD-induced metabolic changes and common adverse environmental factors associated with schizophrenia have made it difficult to determine the specific contributions of each to the overall metabolic picture. Data from drug-naïve patients, both from the pre-APD era and more recently, suggest that there may be an intrinsic metabolic risk associated with schizophrenia. Nevertheless, these findings remain controversial due to significant clinical variability in both psychiatric and metabolic symptoms throughout patients' disease courses. Here, we provide an extensive review of classic and more recent literature describing the metabolic phenotype associated with schizophrenia. We also suggest potential mechanistic links between signaling pathways associated with schizophrenia and metabolic dysfunction. We propose that, beyond its symptomatology in the central nervous system, schizophrenia is also characterized by pathophysiology in other organ systems directly related to metabolic control.

Contributions of citrate in redox potential maintenance and ATP production: metabolic pathways and their regulation in Lactobacillus panis PM1.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Tae Sun; Korber, Darren R; Tanaka, Takuji

2013-10-01

Lactobacillus panis PM1 belongs to the group III heterofermentative lactobacilli and can utilize various NADH-reoxidizing routes (e.g., citrate, glycerol, and oxygen) according to environmental conditions. In this study, we investigated the ability of L. panis PM1 to produce succinate, acetate, and lactate via citrate utilization. Possible pathways, as well as regulation, for citrate metabolism were examined on the basis of the genome sequence data and metabolic profiles of L. panis PM1. The presence of citrate led to the up-regulation, at the transcriptional level, of the genes encoding for citrate lyase, malate dehydrogenase, and malic enzyme of the citrate pathways by 10- to 120-fold. The transcriptional regulator of the dha operon coding for glycerol dehydratase of L. panis PM1 repressed the expression of the citrate lyase gene (10-fold). Metabolite analyses indicated that the transcriptional enhancement by citrate stimulated succinate yield. Citrate metabolism contributed to energy production by providing a major alternate pathway for NAD(+) regeneration and allowed acetyl phosphate to yield acetate/ATP instead of ethanol/NAD(+). Additionally, a branching pathway from oxaloacetate to pyruvate increased the pool of lactate, which was then used to produce ATP during stationary phase. However, the redirection of NADH-to-citrate utilization resulted in stress caused by end-products (i.e., succinate and acetate). This stress reduced succinate production by up to 50 % but did not cause significant changes at transcriptional level. Overall, citrate utilization was beneficial for the growth of L. panis PM1 by providing a NAD(+) regeneration route and producing extra ATP.

Hypothalamic mTOR pathway mediates thyroid hormone-induced hyperphagia in hyperthyroidism.

Science.gov (United States)

Varela, Luis; Martínez-Sánchez, Noelia; Gallego, Rosalía; Vázquez, María J; Roa, Juan; Gándara, Marina; Schoenmakers, Erik; Nogueiras, Rubén; Chatterjee, Krishna; Tena-Sempere, Manuel; Diéguez, Carlos; López, Miguel

2012-06-01

Hyperthyroidism is characterized in rats by increased energy expenditure and marked hyperphagia. Alterations of thermogenesis linked to hyperthyroidism are associated with dysregulation of hypothalamic AMPK and fatty acid metabolism; however, the central mechanisms mediating hyperthyroidism-induced hyperphagia remain largely unclear. Here, we demonstrate that hyperthyroid rats exhibit marked up-regulation of the hypothalamic mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling pathway associated with increased mRNA levels of agouti-related protein (AgRP) and neuropeptide Y (NPY), and decreased mRNA levels of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARC), an area where mTOR co-localizes with thyroid hormone receptor-α (TRα). Central administration of thyroid hormone (T3) or genetic activation of thyroid hormone signalling in the ARC recapitulated hyperthyroidism effects on feeding and the mTOR pathway. In turn, central inhibition of mTOR signalling with rapamycin in hyperthyroid rats reversed hyperphagia and normalized the expression of ARC-derived neuropeptides, resulting in substantial body weight loss. The data indicate that in the hyperthyroid state, increased feeding is associated with thyroid hormone-induced up-regulation of mTOR signalling. Furthermore, our findings that different neuronal modulations influence food intake and energy expenditure in hyperthyroidism pave the way for a more rational design of specific and selective therapeutic compounds aimed at reversing the metabolic consequences of this disease. Copyright © 2012 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Method for determining heterologous biosynthesis pathways

KAUST Repository

Gao, Xin; Kuwahara, Hiroyuki; Alazmi, Meshari Saud; Cui, Xuefeng

2017-01-01

suitable pathways for the endogenous metabolism of a host organism because the efficacy of heterologous biosynthesis is affected by competing endogenous pathways. The present invention is called MRE (Metabolic Route Explorer), and it was conceived

Aspects of astrocyte energy metabolism, amino acid neurotransmitter homoeostasis and metabolic compartmentation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kreft, Marko; Bak, Lasse Kristoffer; Waagepetersen, Helle S

2012-01-01

Astrocytes are key players in brain function; they are intimately involved in neuronal signalling processes and their metabolism is tightly coupled to that of neurons. In the present review, we will be concerned with a discussion of aspects of astrocyte metabolism, including energy......-generating pathways and amino acid homoeostasis. A discussion of the impact that uptake of neurotransmitter glutamate may have on these pathways is included along with a section on metabolic compartmentation....

Erythrocyte metabolism in hyperthyroidism: a microcalorimetric study on changes in the Embden-Meyerhof and the hexose monophosphate pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Monti, M; Hedner, P; Ikomi-Kumm, J; Valdemarsson, S

1987-05-01

Erythrocyte metabolism was studied in vitro by microcalorimetry in 10 hyperthyroid subjects before and after treatment. By inhibiting the enzyme enolase in the Embden-Meyerhof pathway with sodium fluoride (NaF) we have recorded the anaerobic and aerobic contributions in erythrocyte thermogenesis. The decrease in heat production rate in samples with NaF corresponds to the anaerobic contribution, whereas the values from samples with NaF reflect aerobic processes. Before treatment, total heat production rate was 120 +/- 2 mW/l erythrocytes which was higher than the post-treatment value of 99 +/- 2 (P less than 0.001) as well as the value for 14 euthyroid subjects, 108 +/- 2 mW/l (P less than 0.001). The NaF inhibitable rate was 73 +/- 2 before and 63 +/- 1 mW/l after therapy (P less than 0.01). These values correspond to 61 +/- 1 and 64 +/- 1% (n.s.) of the total heat production rate, and were similar to that of 61 +/- 2% for the controls. Heat production rates in the presence of NaF were 47 +/- 1 before and 36 +/- 1 mW/l after therapy (P less than 0.001), representing 39 +/- 1 and 36 +/- 1% of total values, respectively. The present results show that overall metabolism is increased in erythrocytes from hyperthyroid subjects before treatment and returns to normal after normalization of the thyroid function. Moreover, by using microcalorimetry we found that the metabolic activity along the Embden-Meyerhof anaerobic pathway as well as along the hexose monophosphate aerobic pathway in erythrocytes is stimulated by thyroid hormones.

Modulation of cell metabolic pathways and oxidative stress signaling contribute to acquired melphalan resistance in multiple myeloma cells

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zub, Kamila Anna; Sousa, Mirta Mittelstedt Leal de; Sarno, Antonio

2015-01-01

of the AKR1C family involved in prostaglandin synthesis contribute to the resistant phenotype. Finally, selected metabolic and oxidative stress response enzymes were targeted by inhibitors, several of which displayed a selective cytotoxicity against the melphalan-resistant cells and should be further...... and pathways not previously associated with melphalan resistance in multiple myeloma cells, including a metabolic switch conforming to the Warburg effect (aerobic glycolysis), and an elevated oxidative stress response mediated by VEGF/IL8-signaling. In addition, up-regulated aldo-keto reductase levels...

Metabolic Flux Analysis in Isotope Labeling Experiments Using the Adjoint Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Mottelet, Stephane; Gaullier, Gil; Sadaka, Georges

2017-01-01

Comprehension of metabolic pathways is considerably enhanced by metabolic flux analysis (MFA-ILE) in isotope labeling experiments. The balance equations are given by hundreds of algebraic (stationary MFA) or ordinary differential equations (nonstationary MFA), and reducing the number of operations is therefore a crucial part of reducing the computation cost. The main bottleneck for deterministic algorithms is the computation of derivatives, particularly for nonstationary MFA. In this article, we explain how the overall identification process may be speeded up by using the adjoint approach to compute the gradient of the residual sum of squares. The proposed approach shows significant improvements in terms of complexity and computation time when it is compared with the usual (direct) approach. Numerical results are obtained for the central metabolic pathways of Escherichia coli and are validated against reference software in the stationary case. The methods and algorithms described in this paper are included in the sysmetab software package distributed under an Open Source license at http://forge.scilab.org/index.php/p/sysmetab/.

Human cerebral venous outflow pathway depends on posture and central venous pressure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gisolf, J; van Lieshout, J J; van Heusden, K

2004-01-01

and central venous pressure (CVP) on the distribution of cerebral outflow over the internal jugular veins and the vertebral plexus, using a mathematical model. Input to the model was a data set of beat-to-beat cerebral blood flow velocity and CVP measurements in 10 healthy subjects, during baseline rest......Internal jugular veins are the major cerebral venous outflow pathway in supine humans. In upright humans the positioning of these veins above heart level causes them to collapse. An alternative cerebral outflow pathway is the vertebral venous plexus. We set out to determine the effect of posture...... and a Valsalva manoeuvre in the supine and standing position. The model, consisting of 2 jugular veins, each a chain of 10 units containing nonlinear resistances and capacitors, and a vertebral plexus containing a resistance, showed blood flow mainly through the internal jugular veins in the supine position...

Effects of glucose metabolism pathways on sperm motility and oxidative status during long-term liquid storage of goat semen.

Science.gov (United States)

Qiu, Jian-Hua; Li, You-Wei; Xie, Hong-Li; Li, Qing; Dong, Hai-Bo; Sun, Ming-Ju; Gao, Wei-Qiang; Tan, Jing-He

2016-08-01

Although great efforts were made to prolong the fertility of liquid-stored semen, limited improvements have been achieved in different species. Although it is expected that energy supply and the redox potential will play an essential role in sperm function, there are few reports on the impact of specific energy substrates on spermatozoa during liquid semen storage. Furthermore, although it is accepted that glucose metabolism through glycolysis provides energy, roles of pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) and tricarboxylic acid cycle remain to be unequivocally found in spermatozoa. We have studied the pathways by which spermatozoa metabolize glucose during long-term liquid storage of goat semen. The results indicated that among the substrates tested, glucose and pyruvate were better than lactate in maintaining goat sperm motility. Although both glycolysis and PPP were essential, PPP was more important than glycolysis to maintain sperm motility. Pentose phosphate pathway reduced oxidative stress and provided glycolysis with more intermediate products such as fructose-6-phosphate. Pyruvate entered goat spermatozoa through monocarboxylate transporters and was oxidized by the tricarboxylic acid cycle and electron transfer to sustain sperm motility. Long-term liquid semen storage can be used as a good model to study sperm glucose metabolism. The data are important for an optimal control of sperm survival during semen handling and preservation not only in the goat but also in other species. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Lin28/let-7 axis regulates glucose metabolism

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Zhu, Hao; Shyh-Chang, Ng; Segrè, Ayellet V.; Shinoda, Gen; Shah, Samar P.; Einhorn, William S.; Takeuchi, Ayumu; Engreitz, Jesse M.; Hagan, John P.; Kharas, Michael G; Urbach, Achia; Thornton, James E.; Triboulet, Robinson; Gregory, Richard I.; Altshuler, David; Daley, George Q.

2012-01-01

SUMMARY The let-7 tumor suppressor microRNAs are known for their regulation of oncogenes, while the RNA-binding proteins Lin28a/b promote malignancy by blocking let-7 biogenesis. In studies of the Lin28/let-7 pathway, we discovered unexpected roles in regulating metabolism. When overexpressed in mice, both Lin28a and LIN28B promoted an insulin-sensitized state that resisted high fat diet-induced diabetes, whereas muscle-specific loss of Lin28a and overexpression of let-7 resulted in insulin resistance and impaired glucose tolerance. These phenomena occurred in part through let-7-mediated repression of multiple components of the insulin-PI3K-mTOR pathway, including IGF1R, INSR, and IRS2. The mTOR inhibitor rapamycin abrogated the enhanced glucose uptake and insulin-sensitivity conferred by Lin28a in vitro and in vivo. In addition, we found that let-7 targets were enriched for genes that contain SNPs associated with type 2 diabetes and fasting glucose in human genome-wide association studies. These data establish the Lin28/let-7 pathway as a central regulator of mammalian glucose metabolism. PMID:21962509

Topological analysis of metabolic control.

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Sen, A K

1990-12-01

A topological approach is presented for the analysis of control and regulation in metabolic pathways. In this approach, the control structure of a metabolic pathway is represented by a weighted directed graph. From an inspection of the topology of the graph, the control coefficients of the enzymes are evaluated in a heuristic manner in terms of the enzyme elasticities. The major advantage of the topological approach is that it provides a visual framework for (1) calculating the control coefficients of the enzymes, (2) analyzing the cause-effect relationships of the individual enzymes, (3) assessing the relative importance of the enzymes in metabolic regulation, and (4) simplifying the structure of a given pathway, from a regulatory viewpoint. Results are obtained for (a) an unbranched pathway in the absence of feedback the feedforward regulation and (b) an unbranched pathway with feedback inhibition. Our formulation is based on the metabolic control theory of Kacser and Burns (1973) and Heinrich and Rapoport (1974).

Carbohydrate metabolism of Xylella fastidiosa: Detection of glycolytic and pentose phosphate pathway enzymes and cloning and expression of the enolase gene

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Facincani Agda Paula

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this work was to assess the functionality of the glycolytic pathways in the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa. To this effect, the enzymes phosphoglucose isomerase, aldolase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase of the glycolytic pathway, and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase of the Entner-Doudoroff pathway were studied, followed by cloning and expression studies of the enolase gene and determination of its activity. These studies showed that X. fastidiosa does not use the glycolytic pathway to metabolize carbohydrates, which explains the increased duplication time of this phytopatogen. Recombinant enolase was expressed as inclusion bodies and solubilized with urea (most efficient extractor, Triton X-100, and TCA. Enolase extracted from X. fastidiosa and from chicken muscle and liver is irreversibly inactivated by urea. The purification of enolase was partial and resulted in a low yield. No enzymatic activity was detected for either recombinant and native enolases, aldolase, and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, suggesting that X. fastidiosa uses the Entner-Doudoroff pathway to produce pyruvate. Evidence is presented supporting the idea that the regulation of genes and the presence of isoforms with regulation patterns might make it difficult to understand the metabolism of carbohydrates in X. fastidiosa.

An extensive case study of hairy-root cultures for enhanced secondary-metabolite production through metabolic-pathway engineering.

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Mehrotra, Shakti; Rahman, Laiq Ur; Kukreja, Arun Kumar

2010-08-23

An intrinsic improvement is taking place in the methodologies for the development of culture systems with first-rate production of plant-based molecules. The blending of HR (hairy root) cultures with ME (metabolic engineering) approaches offers new insights into, and possibilities for, improving the system productivity for known and/or novel high-value plant-derived active compounds. The introduction and expression of foreign genes in plants results in improvement of cellular activities by manipulating enzymatic, regulatory and transport function of the cell. The rational amendments in the rate-limiting steps of a biosynthetic pathway as well as inactivating the inefficient pathway(s) for by-product formation can be accomplished either through single-step engineering or through the multi-step engineering. The hierarchical control of any metabolic process can lead the engineer to apply the ME ideas and principles to any of the strata, including transcriptional, moving on to translational and enzymatic activity. The HR culture systems offer a remarkable potential for commercial production of a number of low-volume, but high-value, secondary metabolites. Taking HR as a model system, in the present review, we discuss engineering principles and perceptions to exploit secondary-metabolite pathways for the production of important bioactive compounds. We also talk about requisites and possible challenges that occur during ME, with emphasis on examples of various HR systems. Furthermore, it also highlights the utilization of global information obtained from '-omic' platforms in order to explore pathway architecture, structural and functional aspects of important enzymes and genes that can support the design of sets of engineering, resulting in the generation of wide-ranging views of DNA sequence-to-metabolite passageway networking and their control to obtain desired results.

In Vivo Analysis of NH4+ Transport and Central Nitrogen Metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae during Aerobic Nitrogen-Limited Growth

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Maleki Seifar, R.; ten Pierick, A.; van Helmond, W.; Pieterse, M. M.; Heijnen, J. J.

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Ammonium is the most common N source for yeast fermentations. Although its transport and assimilation mechanisms are well documented, there have been only a few attempts to measure the in vivo intracellular concentration of ammonium and assess its impact on gene expression. Using an isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS)-based method, we were able to measure the intracellular ammonium concentration in N-limited aerobic chemostat cultivations using three different N sources (ammonium, urea, and glutamate) at the same growth rate (0.05 h−1). The experimental results suggest that, at this growth rate, a similar concentration of intracellular (IC) ammonium, about 3.6 mmol NH4+/literIC, is required to supply the reactions in the central N metabolism, independent of the N source. Based on the experimental results and different assumptions, the vacuolar and cytosolic ammonium concentrations were estimated. Furthermore, we identified a futile cycle caused by NH3 leakage into the extracellular space, which can cost up to 30% of the ATP production of the cell under N-limited conditions, and a futile redox cycle between Gdh1 and Gdh2 reactions. Finally, using shotgun proteomics with protein expression determined relative to a labeled reference, differences between the various environmental conditions were identified and correlated with previously identified N compound-sensing mechanisms. IMPORTANCE In our work, we studied central N metabolism using quantitative approaches. First, intracellular ammonium was measured under different N sources. The results suggest that Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells maintain a constant NH4+ concentration (around 3 mmol NH4+/literIC), independent of the applied nitrogen source. We hypothesize that this amount of intracellular ammonium is required to obtain sufficient thermodynamic driving force. Furthermore, our calculations based on thermodynamic analysis of the transport mechanisms of ammonium suggest that ammonium is not equally

In vivo analysis of NH4+ transport and central N-metabolism of Saccharomyces cerevisiae under aerobic N-limited conditions.

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Cueto-Rojas, H F; Maleki Seifar, R; Ten Pierick, A; van Helmond, W; Pieterse M, M; Heijnen, J J; Wahl, S A

2016-09-16

Ammonium is the most common N-source for yeast fermentations. Although, its transport and assimilation mechanisms are well documented, there have been only few attempts to measure the in vivo intracellular concentration of ammonium and assess its impact on gene expression. Using an isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS)-based method we were able to measure the intracellular ammonium concentration in N-limited aerobic chemostat cultivations using three different N-sources (ammonium, urea and glutamate) at the same growth rate (0.05 h -1 ). The experimental results suggest that, at this growth rate, a similar concentration of intracellular ammonium, about 3.6 mmol NH 4 + /L IC , is required to supply the reactions in the central N-metabolism independent of the N-source. Based on the experimental results and different assumptions, the vacuolar and cytosolic ammonium concentrations were estimated. Furthermore, we identified a futile cycle caused by NH 3 leakage to the extracellular space, which can cost up to 30% of the ATP production of the cell under N-limited conditions, and a futile redox cycle between reactions Gdh1 and Gdh2. Finally, using shotgun proteomics with labeled reference-relative protein expression, differences between the various environmental conditions were identified and correlated with previously identified N-compound sensing mechanisms. In our work, we study central N-metabolism using quantitative approaches. First, intracellular ammonium was measured under different N-sources. The results suggest that Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells keep a constant NH 4 + concentration (around 3 mmol NH 4 + /L IC ), independent of the applied nitrogen source. We hypothesize that this amount of intracellular ammonium is required to obtain sufficient thermodynamic driving force.Furthermore, our calculations based on thermodynamic analysis of the transport mechanisms of ammonium suggest that ammonium is not equally distributed, indicating a high degree of

Horizontal gene transfer of an entire metabolic pathway between a eukaryotic alga and its DNA virus

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Monier, Adam; Pagarete, António; de Vargas, Colomban; Allen, Michael J.; Read, Betsy; Claverie, Jean-Michel; Ogata, Hiroyuki

2009-01-01

Interactions between viruses and phytoplankton, the main primary producers in the oceans, affect global biogeochemical cycles and climate. Recent studies are increasingly revealing possible cases of gene transfers between cyanobacteria and phages, which might have played significant roles in the evolution of cyanobacteria/phage systems. However, little has been documented about the occurrence of horizontal gene transfer in eukaryotic phytoplankton/virus systems. Here we report phylogenetic evidence for the transfer of seven genes involved in the sphingolipid biosynthesis pathway between the cosmopolitan eukaryotic microalga Emiliania huxleyi and its large DNA virus EhV. PCR assays indicate that these genes are prevalent in E. huxleyi and EhV strains isolated from different geographic locations. Patterns of protein and gene sequence conservation support that these genes are functional in both E. huxleyi and EhV. This is the first clear case of horizontal gene transfer of multiple functionally linked enzymes in a eukaryotic phytoplankton–virus system. We examine arguments for the possible direction of the gene transfer. The virus-to-host direction suggests the existence of ancient viruses that controlled the complex metabolic pathway in order to infect primitive eukaryotic cells. In contrast, the host-to-virus direction suggests that the serial acquisition of genes involved in the same metabolic pathway might have been a strategy for the ancestor of EhVs to stay ahead of their closest relatives in the great evolutionary race for survival. PMID:19451591

Bi-directional gene set enrichment and canonical correlation analysis identify key diet-sensitive pathways and biomarkers of metabolic syndrome

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Gaora Peadar Ó

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Currently, a number of bioinformatics methods are available to generate appropriate lists of genes from a microarray experiment. While these lists represent an accurate primary analysis of the data, fewer options exist to contextualise those lists. The development and validation of such methods is crucial to the wider application of microarray technology in the clinical setting. Two key challenges in clinical bioinformatics involve appropriate statistical modelling of dynamic transcriptomic changes, and extraction of clinically relevant meaning from very large datasets. Results Here, we apply an approach to gene set enrichment analysis that allows for detection of bi-directional enrichment within a gene set. Furthermore, we apply canonical correlation analysis and Fisher's exact test, using plasma marker data with known clinical relevance to aid identification of the most important gene and pathway changes in our transcriptomic dataset. After a 28-day dietary intervention with high-CLA beef, a range of plasma markers indicated a marked improvement in the metabolic health of genetically obese mice. Tissue transcriptomic profiles indicated that the effects were most dramatic in liver (1270 genes significantly changed; p Conclusion Bi-directional gene set enrichment analysis more accurately reflects dynamic regulatory behaviour in biochemical pathways, and as such highlighted biologically relevant changes that were not detected using a traditional approach. In such cases where transcriptomic response to treatment is exceptionally large, canonical correlation analysis in conjunction with Fisher's exact test highlights the subset of pathways showing strongest correlation with the clinical markers of interest. In this case, we have identified selenoamino acid metabolism and steroid biosynthesis as key pathways mediating the observed relationship between metabolic health and high-CLA beef. These results indicate that this type of

Acetic acid activates the AMP-activated protein kinase signaling pathway to regulate lipid metabolism in bovine hepatocytes.

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Xinwei Li

Full Text Available The effect of acetic acid on hepatic lipid metabolism in ruminants differs significantly from that in monogastric animals. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the regulation mechanism of acetic acid on the hepatic lipid metabolism in dairy cows. The AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK signaling pathway plays a key role in regulating hepatic lipid metabolism. In vitro, bovine hepatocytes were cultured and treated with different concentrations of sodium acetate (neutralized acetic acid and BML-275 (an AMPKα inhibitor. Acetic acid consumed a large amount of ATP, resulting in an increase in AMPKα phosphorylation. The increase in AMPKα phosphorylation increased the expression and transcriptional activity of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α, which upregulated the expression of lipid oxidation genes, thereby increasing lipid oxidation in bovine hepatocytes. Furthermore, elevated AMPKα phosphorylation reduced the expression and transcriptional activity of the sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c and the carbohydrate responsive element-binding protein, which reduced the expression of lipogenic genes, thereby decreasing lipid biosynthesis in bovine hepatocytes. In addition, activated AMPKα inhibited the activity of acetyl-CoA carboxylase. Consequently, the triglyceride content in the acetate-treated hepatocytes was significantly decreased. These results indicate that acetic acid activates the AMPKα signaling pathway to increase lipid oxidation and decrease lipid synthesis in bovine hepatocytes, thereby reducing liver fat accumulation in dairy cows.

Exposure to atrazine affects the expression of key genes in metabolic pathways integral to energy homeostasis in Xenopus laevis tadpoles.

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Zaya, Renee M; Amini, Zakariya; Whitaker, Ashley S; Ide, Charles F

2011-08-01

In our laboratory, Xenopus laevis tadpoles exposed throughout development to 200 or 400 μg/L atrazine, concentrations reported to periodically occur in puddles, vernal ponds and runoff soon after application, were smaller and had smaller fat bodies (the tadpole's lipid storage organ) than controls. It was hypothesized that these changes were due to atrazine-related perturbations of energy homeostasis. To investigate this hypothesis, selected metabolic responses to exposure at the transcriptional and biochemical levels in atrazine-exposed tadpoles were measured. DNA microarray technology was used to determine which metabolic pathways were affected after developmental exposure to 400 μg/L atrazine. From these data, genes representative of the affected pathways were selected for assay using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to measure changes in expression during a 2-week exposure to 400 μg/L. Finally, ATP levels were measured from tadpoles both early in and at termination of exposure to 200 and 400 μg/L. Microarray analysis revealed significant differential gene expression in metabolic pathways involved with energy homeostasis. Pathways with increased transcription were associated with the conversion of lipids and proteins into energy. Pathways with decreased transcription were associated with carbohydrate metabolism, fat storage, and protein synthesis. Using qRT-PCR, changes in gene expression indicative of an early stress response to atrazine were noted. Exposed tadpoles had significant decreases in acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (AD) and glucocorticoid receptor protein (GR) mRNA after 24 h of exposure, and near-significant (p=0.07) increases in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor β (PPAR-β) mRNA by 72 h. Decreases in AD suggested decreases in fatty acid β-oxidation while decreases in GR may have been a receptor desensitization response to a glucocorticoid surge. Involvement of PPAR-β, an energy homeostasis regulatory molecule, also

Metabolic Disorder, Inflammation, and Deregulated Molecular Pathways Converging in Pancreatic Cancer Development: Implications for New Therapeutic Strategies

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Motoo, Yoshiharu; Shimasaki, Takeo; Ishigaki, Yasuhito; Nakajima, Hideo; Kawakami, Kazuyuki; Minamoto, Toshinari

2011-01-01

Pancreatic cancer develops and progresses through complex, cumulative biological processes involving metabolic disorder, local inflammation, and deregulated molecular pathways. The resulting tumor aggressiveness hampers surgical intervention and renders pancreatic cancer resistant to standard chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Based on these pathologic properties, several therapeutic strategies are being developed to reverse refractory pancreatic cancer. Here, we outline molecular targeting therapies, which are primarily directed against growth factor receptor-type tyrosine kinases deregulated in tumors, but have failed to improve the survival of pancreatic cancer patients. Glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK3β) is a member of a serine/threonine protein kinase family that plays a critical role in various cellular pathways. GSK3β has also emerged as a mediator of pathological states, including glucose intolerance, inflammation, and various cancers (e.g., pancreatic cancer). We review recent studies that demonstrate the anti-tumor effects of GSK3β inhibition alone or in combination with chemotherapy and radiation. GSK3β inhibition may exert indirect anti-tumor actions in pancreatic cancer by modulating metabolic disorder and inflammation