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A more structured metabolome

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 16, pages 1125–1126 (2009)Cite this article

A recent study has put together the three-dimensional structures of proteins involved in the central metabolism of one organism, providing insight into the evolution of metabolic networks.

More than ten years ago, eminent computational biologist Janet Thornton was quoted in these pages1 as saying that there was “not a single mention of any structural data” in the first days of discussion about the then-embryonic field of “genomic medicine,” adding that there was a “rift between the sequence world and the structure world.” Things have moved on considerably since then, and an entire discipline has arisen to add a structural perspective to the genome. Indeed, structural genomics initiatives, along with the increasing pace of traditional structural biology, have provided thousands of new structures2, and many projects aim to provide complete coverage for the globular proteome of multiple organisms3,4. At the same time, post-genome initiatives such as proteomics, functional genomics, metabolomics and interactome projects have augmented hundreds of genomes with additional information about how genes and gene products interact or affect each other. Systems-biology approaches have also emerged to study and predict the behavior of entire systems. However, as with their genome precursors, few of these initiatives cross over into the world of three-dimensional (3D) structure, and indeed, one could be forgiven for thinking that, in fact, little has changed and that perhaps the rift is still there.

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Figure 1: Schematic detailing the prevailing theories of how gene duplication can explain the formation of a metabolic network.

Kim Caesar

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Matthew J. Betts is at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany, and the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.,

    Matthew J Betts

  2. Robert B. Russell is at the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.,

    Robert B Russell

Authors
  1. Matthew J Betts
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  2. Robert B Russell
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Correspondence to Robert B Russell.

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Betts, M., Russell, R. A more structured metabolome. Nat Struct Mol Biol 16, 1125–1126 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb1109-1125

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