Evolution of a genome-encoded bias in amino acid biosynthetic pathways is a potential indicator of amino acid dynamics in the environment.

ABSTRACT: Overcoming the stress of starvation is one of an organism's most challenging phenotypic responses. Those organisms that frequently survive the challenge, by virtue of their fitness, will have evolved genomes that are shaped by their specific environments. Understanding this genotype-environment-phenotype relationship at a deep level will require quantitative predictive models of the complex molecular systems that link these aspects of an organism's existence. Here, we treat one of the most fundamental molecular systems, protein synthesis, and the amino acid biosynthetic pathways involved in the stringent response to starvation. These systems face an inherent logical dilemma: Building an amino acid biosynthetic pathway to synthesize its product-the cognate amino acid of the pathway-may requ

SUBMITTER: Fasani RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4209129 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature