Year: 2006
Type: report
Abstract: tools for basic investigations of the physiology of these cells through, primarily, the determination of their metabolic fluxes. The reason for this decision lies in the importance of fluxes as key indicators of physiology and the high level of information content they carry in terms of identifying rate limiting steps in a metabolic pathway. While flux determination is a well-advanced subject for heterotrophic organisms, for the case of autotrophic bacteria, like Synechocystis, some special challenges had to be overcome. These challenges stem mostly from the fact that if one uses {sup 13}C labeled CO{sub 2} for flux determination, the {sup 13}C label will mark, at steady state, all carbon atoms of all cellular metabolites, thus eliminating the necessary differentiation required for flux determination. This peculiarity of autotrophic organisms makes it imperative to carry out flux determination under transient conditions, something that had not been accomplished before. We are pleased to report that we have solved this problem and we are now able to determine fluxes in photosynthetic organisms from stable isotope labeling experiments followed by measurements of label enrichment in cellular metabolites using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. We have conducted extensive simulations to test the method and also are presently validating it experimentally using data generated in collaboration with a research group at Purdue University. As result of these studies we can now determine, for the first time, fluxes in photosynthetic organisms and, eventually, in plants.
DOI: 10.2172/881797
Author: Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy
OpenAlex ID: W167956642