Glycolysis without pyruvate kinase in Clostridium thermocellum.
Olson DGThayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA; BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA. Electronic address: Daniel.G.Olson@Dartmouth.edu.
Hörl MInstitute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Fuhrer TInstitute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Cui JThayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA; BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA.
Zhou JThayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA; BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA.
Maloney MIThayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA; BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA.
Amador-Noguez DDepartment of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Tian LThayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA; BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA.
Sauer UInstitute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Lynd LRThayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA; BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA. Electronic address: Lee.R.Lynd@Dartmouth.edu.
English
The metabolism of Clostridium thermocellum is notable in that it assimilates sugar via the EMP pathway but does not possess a pyruvate kinase enzyme. In the wild type organism, there are three proposed pathways for conversion of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) to pyruvate, which differ in their cofactor usage. One path uses pyruvate phosphate dikinase (PPDK), another pathway uses the combined activities of PEP carboxykinase (PEPCK) and oxaloacetate decarboxylase (ODC). Yet another pathway, the malate shunt, uses the combined activities of PEPCK, malate dehydrogenase and malic enzyme. First we showed that there is no flux through the ODC pathway by enzyme assay. Flux through the remaining two pathways (PPDK and malate shunt) was determined by dynamic 13C labeling. In the wild-type strain, the malate shunt accounts for about 33±2% of the flux to pyruvate, with the remainder via the PPDK pathway. Deletion of the ppdk gene resulted in a redirection of all pyruvate flux through the malate shunt. This provides the first direct evidence of the in-vivo function of the malate shunt.