Biochemical unity revisited: microbial central carbon metabolism holds new discoveries, multi-tasking pathways, and redundancies with a reason

Contests with multi-tasking

Central carbon metabolism as a minimal biochemical walk between precursors for biomass and energy.

Central carbon metabolism uses a complex series of enzymatic steps to convert sugars into metabolic precursors. These precursors are then used to generate the entire biomass of the cell. Are there simplifying principles that can explain the structure of such metabolic networks? Here we address this question by studying central carbon metabolism in E. coli. We use all known classes of enzymes th...

Genome sequencing and informatics: new tools for biochemical discoveries.

During the past 3 years, we have experienced a major revolution in the biological sciences resulting from a tremendous flux of information generated by genomesequencing efforts. Our understanding of microorganisms, the metabolic processes they catalyze, the genetic apparatuses encoding cellular proteinaceous constituents, and the pathological conditions caused by these organisms has greatly ben...

Central Pathways of Carbohydrate Metabolism

1. Central pathways of carbohydrate metabolism 2. Conversion of compounds to intermediates usable in central pathways 3. Mechanisms of energy (ATP) production a. Substrate-level phosphorylation b. Oxidative phosphorylation c. Other mechanisms of energy transfer 4. Metabolic steps involved in the generation and use of reducing activity a. Reduction of pyruvate or other substrates to fermentation...

New discoveries at the interface of boron and carbon chemistries*

The continued growth of polyhedral borane chemistry is illustrated by the successful synthesis of [closo-B12(OH)12] 2– by the H2O2 oxidation of [closo-B12H12] 2–. The hydroxylated species reacts with common organic reagents to produce 12-fold degenerately substituted carboxylate esters, ethers, and carbamate esters. The ether derivatives undergo facile and reversible redox reactions in which th...