Chapter title |
Metabolic networks and their evolution.
|
---|---|
Chapter number | 2 |
Book title |
Evolutionary Systems Biology
|
Published in |
Advances in experimental medicine and biology, June 2012
|
DOI | 10.1007/978-1-4614-3567-9_2 |
Pubmed ID | |
Book ISBNs |
978-1-4614-3566-2, 978-1-4614-3567-9
|
Authors |
Wagner A, Andreas Wagner, Wagner, Andreas |
Editors |
Orkun S. Soyer |
Abstract |
Since the last decade of the twentieth century, systems biology has gained the ability to study the structure and function of genome-scale metabolic networks. These are systems of hundreds to thousands of chemical reactions that sustain life. Most of these reactions are catalyzed by enzymes which are encoded by genes. A metabolic network extracts chemical elements and energy from the environment, and converts them into forms that the organism can use. The function of a whole metabolic network constrains evolutionary changes in its parts. I will discuss here three classes of such changes, and how they are constrained by the function of the whole. These are the accumulation of amino acid changes in enzyme-coding genes, duplication of enzyme-coding genes, and changes in the regulation of enzymes. Conversely, evolutionary change in network parts can alter the function of the whole network. I will discuss here two such changes, namely the elimination of reactions from a metabolic network through loss of function mutations in enzyme-coding genes, and the addition of metabolic reactions, for example through mechanisms such as horizontal gene transfer. Reaction addition also provides a window into the evolution of metabolic innovations, the ability of a metabolism to sustain life on new sources of energy and of chemical elements. |
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Unknown | 1 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
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Members of the public | 1 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
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Iran, Islamic Republic of | 1 | 2% |
Mexico | 1 | 2% |
Portugal | 1 | 2% |
Germany | 1 | 2% |
Unknown | 48 | 92% |
Demographic breakdown
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Student > Ph. D. Student | 15 | 29% |
Researcher | 14 | 27% |
Professor > Associate Professor | 5 | 10% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 4 | 8% |
Student > Bachelor | 2 | 4% |
Other | 6 | 12% |
Unknown | 6 | 12% |
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Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 8 | 15% |
Computer Science | 3 | 6% |
Physics and Astronomy | 3 | 6% |
Mathematics | 2 | 4% |
Other | 6 | 12% |
Unknown | 8 | 15% |