Review - Principles of Metabolic Regulation

In this review article from the Sauer group, the authors surveyed the literature concerning the microbial model organisms E. coli, B. subtilis and S. cerevisiae to elucidate general principles of metabolic regulation. Focusing on basic metabolic tasks such as nutrient uptake and catabolism, energy harvesting, amino acid supply and protein synthesis, the authors found that a set of key metabolites is increasingly recognized to control individual regulatory circuits across different organisms. Such regulatory circuits process various information inputs from the environment and metabolism to establish a regulatory output in terms of metabolic fluxes. The authors concluded that such a modular view of microbial metabolism facilitates an intuitive understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie cellular decision making.

Reference: Chubukov V, Gerosa L, Kochanowski K, Sauer U. Coordination of microbial metabolism. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2014 Mar 24. external page DOI