Engineering microorganisms based on molecular evolutionary analysis: a succinate production case study.

ABSTRACT: Evolution has resulted in thousands of species possessing similar metabolic enzymes with identical functions that are, however, regulated by different mechanisms. It is thus difficult to select optimal gene to engineer novel or manipulated metabolic pathways. Here, we tested the ability of molecular evolutionary analysis to identify appropriate genes from various species. We calculated the fraction of synonymous substitution and the effective number of codons (ENC) for nine genes stemming from glycolysis. Our research indicated that an enzyme gene with a stronger selective constraint in synonymous sites would mainly regulate corresponding reaction flux through altering the concentration of the protein, whereas those with a more relaxed selective constraint would primarily affect correspond

SUBMITTER: Ma X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4211721 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature