Metabolite secretion in microorganisms: the theory of metabolic overflow put to the test
Review article, 2018
Introduction Microbial cells secrete many metabolites during growth, including important intermediates of the central carbon metabolism. This has not been taken into account by researchers when modeling microbial metabolism for metabolic engineering and systems biology studies. Materials and Methods The uptake of metabolites by microorganisms is well studied, but our knowledge of how and why they secrete different intracellular compounds is poor. The secretion of metabolites by microbial cells has traditionally been regarded as a consequence of intracellular metabolic overflow. Conclusions Here, we provide evidence based on time-series metabolomics data that microbial cells eliminate some metabolites in response to environmental cues, independent of metabolic overflow. Moreover, we review the different mechanisms of metabolite secretion and explore how this knowledge can benefit metabolic modeling and engineering.
Microbial metabolism
Systems biology
Active efflux
Metabolic engineering
Metabolic modeling
Secretion
Microorganisms
Author
Farhana R. Pinu
New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Ltd
Ninna Granucci
University of Auckland
James Daniell
University of Auckland
LanzaTech
Ting-Li Han
University of Auckland
Sonia Carneiro
University of Minho
Isabel Rocha
University of Minho
Jens B Nielsen
Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Silas G. Villas-Boas
University of Auckland
Metabolomics
1573-3882 (ISSN) 1573-3890 (eISSN)
Vol. 14 4 43Subject Categories
Pharmaceutical Sciences
Microbiology
Other Medical Biotechnology
DOI
10.1007/s11306-018-1339-7