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Detecting the Significant Flux Backbone of Escherichia coli metabolism
Author(s) -
Güell Oriol,
Sagués Francesc,
Serrano M. Ángeles
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1002/1873-3468.12650
Subject(s) - escherichia coli , flux (metallurgy) , metabolism , organism , metabolic pathway , chemistry , energy metabolism , bacteria , microbial metabolism , biochemistry , adaptation (eye) , metabolic flux analysis , biophysics , biology , genetics , gene , organic chemistry , neuroscience , endocrinology
The heterogeneity of computationally predicted reaction fluxes in metabolic networks within a single flux state can be exploited to detect their significant flux backbone. Here, we disclose the backbone of Escherichia coli , and compare it with the backbones of other bacteria. We find that, in general, the core of the backbones is mainly composed of reactions in energy metabolism corresponding to ancient pathways. In E. coli , the synthesis of nucleotides and the metabolism of lipids form smaller cores which rely critically on energy metabolism. Moreover, the consideration of different media leads to the identification of pathways sensitive to environmental changes. The metabolic backbone of an organism is thus useful to trace simultaneously both its evolution and adaptation fingerprints.