Abstract
We present a new method for probing cellular metabolic fluxes that is based on the kinetics of assimilation of isotope-labeled nutrient into a diversity of downstream metabolites. In the case of nitrogen assimilation, half-maximal labeling of most metabolites occurs in 10–300 s. Fluxes measured on the basis of the kinetics of nitrogen assimilation in exponentially growing E. coli agree well with those fluxes predicted to allow optimal biomass production.
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Acknowledgements
We thank D. Botstein and N. Wingreen for their intellectual contributions and the US National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Beckman Foundation for their financial support.
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Supplementary information
Supplementary Fig. 1
Passage of isotope-labeled nitrogen from central assimilation intermediates into biopolymer precursors. (PDF 45 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 2
Effect of carbon starvation on intracellular metabolite pools and fluxes in E. coli. (PDF 39 kb)
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Yuan, J., Fowler, W., Kimball, E. et al. Kinetic flux profiling of nitrogen assimilation in Escherichia coli. Nat Chem Biol 2, 529–530 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio816
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio816
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