Regensburg 2013 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 8: Posters: Proteins
BP 8.15: Poster
Montag, 11. März 2013, 17:30–19:30, Poster B2
Intracellular crowding effects on cellular metabolism — •Florencia Noriega1, Márcio Argollo2, and Alexei Vázquez3 — 1MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany — 2UFF, Niterói, Brazil — 3UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, USA
70 to 90% of the dry weight in the cell is occupied by the 3 types of macromolecules: DNA, RNA and proteins. The high density levels of macromolecular components in the cellular cytoplasm, also known as molecular crowding, is important for the development of many cellular functions like protein folding, protein protein association and dissociation, biochemical reactions rates, molecular diffusion within the cell, among others. It has been shown that molecular crowding acts also at a global scale limiting the cytoplasm solvent capacity [1], due to the limited available volume in the cell. To estimate the molecular crowding global effect on a simple cellular metabolic network we develop a flux balance model considering the macromolecular concentrations at different growth rates and determine the metabolic steady states, given by the fluxes of the metabolic reactions. We found a metabolic switch, activation and inactivation of the fluxes, in a simple cell model, when is shifted from low to high growth rates. Such behavior is observed in yeast cells and is called crabtree effect, where at high growth rates acetate compound is secreted by the cell, indicating the activation of the fermentation pathway of glucose consumption.
[1] Beg QK, et al.(2007) PNAS 104: 12663-12668. Vázquez A, et al. (2008) BMC Systems Biol 2: 7.