Carbon Metabolic Pathways in Phototrophic Bacteria and Their Broader Evolutionary Implications

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Photosynthesis is the biological process that converts solar energy to biomass, bio-products, and biofuel. It is the only major natural solar energy storage mechanism on Earth. To satisfy the increased demand for sustainable energy sources and identify the mechanism of photosynthetic carbon assimilation, which is one of the bottlenecks in photosynthesis, it is essential to understand the process of solar energy storage and associated carbon metabolism in photosynthetic organisms. Researchers have employed physiological studies, microbiological chemistry, enzyme assays, genome sequencing, transcriptomics, and ¹³C-based metabolomics/fluxomics to investigate central carbon metabolism and enzymes that operate in phototrophs. In this report, we review diverse CO ₂ assimilation pathways, acetate assimilation, carbohydrate catabolism, the tricarboxylic acid cycle and some key, and/or unconventional enzymes in central carbon metabolism of phototrophic microorganisms. We also discuss the reducing equivalent flow during photoautotrophic and photoheterotrophic growth, evolutionary links in the central carbon metabolic network, and correlations between photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic organisms. Considering the metabolic versatility in these fascinating and diverse photosynthetic bacteria, many essential questions in their central carbon metabolism still remain to be addressed.

Related collections

Most cited references 156

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

A molecular view of microbial diversity and the biosphere.

N Pace (1997)

Over three decades of molecular-phylogenetic studies, researchers have compiled an increasingly robust map of evolutionary diversification showing that the main diversity of life is microbial, distributed among three primary relatedness groups or domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya. The general properties of representatives of the three domains indicate that the earliest life was based on inorganic nutrition and that photosynthesis and use of organic compounds for carbon and energy metabolism came comparatively later. The application of molecular-phylogenetic methods to study natural microbial ecosystems without the traditional requirement for cultivation has resulted in the discovery of many unexpected evolutionary lineages; members of some of these lineages are only distantly related to known organisms but are sufficiently abundant that they are likely to have impact on the chemistry of the biosphere.

0 comments Cited 421 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

The oxidative pentose phosphate pathway: structure and organisation.

Nicholas J Kruger, Antje von Schaewen (2003)

The oxidative pentose phosphate pathway is a major source of reducing power and metabolic intermediates for biosynthetic processes. Some, if not all, of the enzymes of the pathway are found in both the cytosol and plastids, although the precise distribution of their activities varies. The apparent absence of sections of the pathway from the cytosol potentially complicates metabolism. These complications are partly offset, however, by exchange of intermediates between the cytosol and the plastids through the activities of a family of plastid phosphate translocators. Molecular analysis is confirming the widespread presence of multiple genes encoding each of the enzymes of the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway. Differential expression of these isozymes may ensure that the kinetic properties of the activity that catalyses a specific reaction match the metabolic requirements of a particular tissue. This hypothesis can be tested thanks to recent developments in the application of 13C-steady-state labelling strategies. These strategies make it possible to quantify flux through metabolic networks and to discriminate between pathways of carbohydrate oxidation in the cytosol and plastids.

0 comments Cited 232 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Evolution of photosynthesis.

Martin F Hohmann-Marriott, Robert E Blankenship, John Allen (2011)

Energy conversion of sunlight by photosynthetic organisms has changed Earth and life on it. Photosynthesis arose early in Earth's history, and the earliest forms of photosynthetic life were almost certainly anoxygenic (non-oxygen evolving). The invention of oxygenic photosynthesis and the subsequent rise of atmospheric oxygen approximately 2.4 billion years ago revolutionized the energetic and enzymatic fundamentals of life. The repercussions of this revolution are manifested in novel biosynthetic pathways of photosynthetic cofactors and the modification of electron carriers, pigments, and existing and alternative modes of photosynthetic carbon fixation. The evolutionary history of photosynthetic organisms is further complicated by lateral gene transfer that involved photosynthetic components as well as by endosymbiotic events. An expanding wealth of genetic information, together with biochemical, biophysical, and physiological data, reveals a mosaic of photosynthetic features. In combination, these data provide an increasingly robust framework to formulate and evaluate hypotheses concerning the origin and evolution of photosynthesis.

0 comments Cited 227 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Front Microbiol

Journal ID (publisher-id): Front. Microbio.

Title: Frontiers in Microbiology

Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation

ISSN (Electronic): 1664-302X

Publication date (Electronic): 01 August 2011

Publication date Collection: 2011

Volume: 2

Electronic Location Identifier: 165

Affiliations

[1] ¹simpleDepartment of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO, USA

[2] ²simpleDepartment of Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO, USA

[3] ³simpleDepartment of Energy, Environment, and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO, USA

Author notes

Edited by: Thomas E. Hanson, University of Delaware, USA

Reviewed by: Thomas E. Hanson, University of Delaware, USA; Ulrike Kappler, University of Queensland, Australia

*Correspondence: Kuo-Hsiang Tang, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1137, St. Louis, MO, USA.; Robert Eugene Blankenship, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1137, St. Louis, MO, USA. e-mail: blankenship@ 123456wustl.edu

^†Current address: Kuo-Hsiang Tang, Carlson School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Department of Biology, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610, USA. e-mail: j.tang@ 123456wustl.edu

This article was submitted to Frontiers in Microbial Physiology and Metabolism, a specialty of Frontiers in Microbiology.

Article

DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2011.00165

PMC ID: 3149686

PubMed ID: 21866228

SO-VID: 79f040ba-a015-487e-a1eb-50d94e251dd4

License:

This is an open-access article subject to a non-exclusive license between the authors and Frontiers Media SA, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and other Frontiers conditions are complied with.

History

Date received : 06 April 2011

Date accepted : 18 July 2011

Page count

Figures: 9, Tables: 4, Equations: 0, References: 190, Pages: 23, Words: 16430

Comments

Comment on this article

scite_

Smart Citations

Citing PublicationsSupportingMentioningContrasting

View Citations

See how this article has been cited at scite.ai

scite shows how a scientific paper has been cited by providing the context of the citation, a classification describing whether it supports, mentions, or contrasts the cited claim, and a label indicating in which section the citation was made.