• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.571-577
• /
• 2003

The intracellular metabolic fluxes can be calculated by metabolic flux analysis, which uses a stoichiometric model for the intracellulal reactions along with mass balances around the intracellular metabolites. In this study, metabolic flux analyses were carried out to estimate flux distributions for the maximum in silico yields of various metabolites in Escherichia coli. The maximum in silico yields of acetic acid and lactic acid were identical to their theoretical yields. On the other hand, the in silico yields of succinic acid and ethanol were only 83% and 6.5% of their theoretical yields, respectively. The lower in silico yield of succinic acid was found to be due to the insufficient reducing power. but this lower yield could be increased to its theoretical yield by supplying more reducing power. The maximum theoretical yield of ethanol could be achieved, when a reaction catalyzed by pyruvate decarboxylase was added in the metabolic network. Futhermore, optimal metabolic pathways for the production of various metabolites could be proposed, based on the results of metabolic flux analyses. In the case of succinic acid production, it was found that the pyruvate carboxylation pathway should be used for its optimal production in E. coli rather than the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylation pathway.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.29-38
• /
• 2018

During cancer progression, cancer cells are repeatedly exposed to metabolic stress conditions in a resource-limited environment which they must escape. Increasing evidence indicates the importance of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) homeostasis in the survival of cancer cells under metabolic stress conditions, such as metabolic resource limitation and therapeutic intervention. NADPH is essential for scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) mainly derived from oxidative phosphorylation required for ATP generation. Thus, metabolic reprogramming of NADPH homeostasis is an important step in cancer progression as well as in combinational therapeutic approaches. In mammalian, the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) and one-carbon metabolism are major sources of NADPH production. In this review, we focus on the importance of glucose flux control towards PPP regulated by oncogenic pathways and the potential therein for metabolic targeting as a cancer therapy. We also summarize the role of Snail (Snai1), an important regulator of the epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT), in controlling glucose flux towards PPP and thus potentiating cancer cell survival under oxidative and metabolic stress.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
• /
• v.31 no.10
• /
• pp.1266-1275
• /
• 2004

Bioinformatics is concerned with the creation and development of advanced information and computational technologies for problems in biology. It is divided into genomics, proteomics and metabolimics. In metabolimics, an organism is represented by metabolic pathway, i.e., well-displayed graph, and so the graph drawing tool to draw pathway well is necessary to understand it comprehensively. In this paper, we design an improved drawing algorithm. It enhances the readability by making use of the bipartite graph. Also it is possible to draw large graph properly by considering the facts that metabolic pathway graph is scale-free network and is composed of circular components, hierarchic components and linear components.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.81-95
• /
• 2003

Carotenoids are synthesized from the plastidic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (GAP)/pyruvate pathway in isoprenoids biosynthetic system of plants. They play a crucial role in light harvesting, work as photoprotective agents in photosynthesis of nature, and are also responsible for the red, orange and yellow colors of fruits and flowers in plants. In addition to biological actions of carotenoids as antioxidants and natural pigments, they are essential components of human diet as a source of vitamin A. It has been also suggested that some kinds of carotenoids might provide protection against cancer and heart disease as human medicines. In this article, we review the commercial applications on the basis of biological functions of carotenoids, summarize the studies of genes involved in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, and introduce recent results achieved in metabolic engineering of carotenoids. This effort for understanding the carotenoids metabolism will make us to increase the total carotenoid contents of crop plants, direct the carotenoid biosynthetic machinery towards other useful carotenoids, and produce a new array of carotenoids by further metabolizing the new precursors that are created when one or two key enzymes in carotenoid biosynthetic pathway are exchanged through gene manipulation in the near future.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.48 no.10
• /
• pp.571-576
• /
• 2015

SB743921 is a potent inhibitor of the spindle protein kinesin and is being investigated in ongoing clinical trials for the treatment of myeloma. However, little is known about the molecular events underlying the induction of cell death in multiple myeloma (MM) by SB743921, alone or in combination treatment. Here, we report that SB743921 induces mitochondria-mediated cell death via inhibition of the $NF-{\kappa}B$ signaling pathway, but does not cause cell cycle arrest in KMS20 MM cells. SB743921-mediated inhibition of the $NF-{\kappa}B$ pathway results in reduced expression of SOD2 and Mcl-1, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction. We also found that combination treatment with SB743921 and bortezomib induces death in bortezomib-resistant KMS20 cells. Altogether, these data suggest that treatment with SB743921 alone or in combination with bortezomib offers excellent translational potential and promises to be a novel MM therapy.

• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.464-469
• /
• 2005

For the biological production of hydrogen, a new fermentative hydrogen-producing bacterium, Enterobacter sp. SNU-1453, was isolated from a domestic landfill. During the culture of this bacterium, pH significantly decreased with the accumulation of various organic acids, and consequently this inhibited the production of hydrogen. It was found that the metabolic flux in this bacterium depended on the pH and affected the hydrogen production. A butanediol pathway was dominant during the fermentation when pH was not controlled. By controlling the pH at 7 this pathway can be shifted to a mixed acid pathway, which is favorable to the production of hydrogen.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.11 no.6
• /
• pp.928-933
• /
• 2001

Approximately 0.1 mg/ml of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was degraded by the growing cell, Brevibacillus laterospours, for 30 h, and 0.2 mg/ml of PVA was degraded by the cell-free extract that was isolated from Brevibacillus laterosporus. Approximately $0.29{\mu}g$/ml of acetic acid was produced from PVA by using the cell-free extract as a catalyst for 40 min. $V_{max}\;and\;K_m$ value of purified PAV-degradation enzyme was 3.75g/l and 2.75 g/l/min in reaction with EDTA and 3.99 g/l and 2.98 g/l/min in reaction without EDTA, respectively. Molecular weight of the purified enzyme determined by SDS-PAGE was 63,000 Da. Alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase activities were qualitatively detected on a native acrylamide gel by an active staining method, indicating the existence of the metabolic pathway to use PVA as a substrate.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.250-250
• /
• 2002

This study confirmed that white rot fungus Irpex lacteus was able to metabolize 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) with two different initial transformations. In one metabolic pathway of TNT a nitro group was removed from the aromatic ring of TNT. Hydride-Meisenheimer complexes of TNT (H/sup -/-TNT), colored dark redo were confirmed as the intermediate in this transformation by comparison with the synthetic compounds. 2,4-Dinitrotoluene as a following metabolic product was detected, and nitrite produced by denitration of $H^-$-TNT supported this transformation. In the other TNT pathway, nitro groups in TNT were successively reduced to amino groups via hydroxylamines. Hydroxylamino-dinitrotoluenes and amino-dinitrotoluenes were identified as the intermediates. The activity of a membrane-associated aromatic nitroreductase was detected in the cell-free extract of I. lacteus. This enzyme catalyzed the nitro group reduction of TNT with NADPH as a cofactor, Enzyme activity was not observed in the presence of molecular oxygen.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.384-388
• /
• 2001

The metabolic pathway synthesis algorithm was applied to estimate the maximum ethanol yield from xylose in a model recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain containing the genes involved in xylose metabolism. The stoichiometrically independent pathways were identified by constructing a biochemical reaction network for conversion of xylose to ethanol in the recombinant S. cerevisiae. Two independent pathways were obtained in xylose-assimilating recombinant S. cerevisiae as opposed to six independent pathways for conversion of glucose to ethanol. The maximum ethanol yield from xylose was estimated to be 0.46 g/g, which was lower than the known value of 0.51 g/g for glucose-fermenting and wild-type xylose-fermenting yeasts.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.250-254
• /
• 2000

This study confirmed that white rot fungus Irpex lacteus was able to metabolize 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) with two different initial transformations. In one metabolic pathway of TNT a nitro group was removed from the aromatic ring of TNT. Hydride-Meisenheimer complexes of TNT (H$\^$-/-TNT), colored dark redo were confirmed as the intermediate in this transformation by comparison with the synthetic compounds. 2,4-Dinitrotoluene as a following metabolic product was detected, and nitrite produced by denitration of H$\^$-/-TNT supported this transformation. In the other TNT pathway, nitro groups in TNT were successively reduced to amino groups via hydroxylamines. Hydroxylamino-dinitrotoluenes and amino-dinitrotoluenes were identified as the intermediates. The activity of a membrane-associated aromatic nitroreductase was detected in the cell-free extract of I. lacteus. This enzyme catalyzed the nitro group reduction of TNT with NADPH as a cofactor, Enzyme activity was not observed in the presence of molecular oxygen.