Systems-level metabolic flux profiling elucidates a complete, bifurcated tricarboxylic acid cycle in Clostridium acetobutylicum.

ABSTRACT: Obligatory anaerobic bacteria are major contributors to the overall metabolism of soil and the human gut. The metabolic pathways of these bacteria remain, however, poorly understood. Using isotope tracers, mass spectrometry, and quantitative flux modeling, here we directly map the metabolic pathways of Clostridium acetobutylicum, a soil bacterium whose major fermentation products include the biofuels butanol and hydrogen. While genome annotation suggests the absence of most tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle enzymes, our results demonstrate that this bacterium has a complete, albeit bifurcated, TCA cycle; oxaloacetate flows to succinate both through citrate/alpha-ketoglutarate and via malate/fumarate. Our investigations also yielded insights into the pathways utilized for glucose catabolism an

SUBMITTER: Amador-Noguez D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2937365 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature