Optimal Compartmentalization Strategies for Metabolic Microcompartments.

ABSTRACT: Intracellular compartmentalization of cooperating enzymes is a strategy that is frequently used by cells. Segregation of enzymes that catalyze sequential reactions can alleviate challenges such as toxic pathway intermediates, competing metabolic reactions, and slow reaction rates. Inspired by nature, synthetic biologists also seek to encapsulate engineered metabolic pathways within vesicles or proteinaceous shells to enhance the yield of industrially and pharmaceutically useful products. Although enzymatic compartments have been extensively studied experimentally, a quantitative understanding of the underlying design principles is still lacking. Here, we study theoretically how the size and enzymatic composition of compartments should be chosen so as to maximize the productivity of a model

SUBMITTER: Hinzpeter F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5340097 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature