C-Fingerprinting and Metabolic Flux Analysis of Bacterial Metabolisms.

C-assisted metabolism analysis provides rigorous calculations of the intracellular reaction rates (i.e., fluxes) within the central metabolism of microbial hosts.

Deciphering cyanobacterial phenotypes for fast photoautotrophic growth via isotopically nonstationary metabolic flux analysis.

Background: UTEX 2973 is the fastest growing cyanobacterium characterized to date. Its genome was found to be 99.8% identical to 7942 yet it grows twice as fast.

Cyanobacterial carbon metabolism: Fluxome plasticity and oxygen dependence.

Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803 has been widely used as a photo-biorefinery chassis. Based on its genome annotation, this species contains a complete TCA cycle, an Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway (EMPP), an oxidative pentose phosphate pathway (OPPP), and an Entner-Doudoroff pathway (EDP).

Exploring eukaryotic formate metabolisms to enhance microbial growth and lipid accumulation.

Background: C1 substrates (such as formate and methanol) are promising feedstock for biochemical/biofuel production. Numerous studies have been focusing on engineering heterologous pathways to incorporate C1 substrates into biomass, while the engineered microbial hosts often demonstrate inferior fermentation performance due to substrate toxicity, metabolic burdens from engineered pathways, and poor enzyme activities. Alternatively, exploring native C1 pathways in non-model microbes could be a better solution to address these challenges.

Examining glycolytic pathways, catabolite repression, and metabolite channeling using Δ mutants.

Background: Glycolysis breakdowns glucose into essential building blocks and ATP/NAD(P)H for the cell, occupying a central role in its growth and bio-production. Among glycolytic pathways, the Entner Doudoroff pathway (EDP) is a more thermodynamically favorable pathway with fewer enzymatic steps than either the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway (EMPP) or the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway (OPPP). However, do not use their native EDP for glucose metabolism.