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Project 11:
Silicon cell model for the central carbohydrate metabolism of the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus under temperature variation
Since their discovery as a third domain of life, Archaea represent an important comparative lineage to study the evolution and characteristics of central cellular functions in all living cells. Archaea have gained special interest, because mechanisms involved in information processing (transcription, translation, replication, etc.) represent a simpler version of eukaryotic equivalents and because Archaea harbor several unique metabolic features. The archaeal central carbohydrate metabolism is characterized by unusual pathways and enzymes many of which differ from the bacterial or eukaryotic counterparts [1]. However, although pathways for hexose metabolism have been unraveled in several Archaea, their regulation as well as energetics is still not understood.
Source: Bettina Siebers
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Source: Bettina Siebers
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The archaeal model organism of choice for a systems biology approach is Sulfolobus solfataricus, a thermoacidophilic Crenarchaeon that grows at around 80°C and pH 3 [2]. S. solfataricus uses an unusual branched Entner-Doudoroff (ED) pathway for glucose catabolism [3]. Life at high temperature requires a very efficient adaptation to temperature changes, which is most difficult to deal with for organisms and it is unclear how biological networks can withstand and respond to such changes. In the accepted SysMO project, which is performed by 10 european partners (see below), we will study the central carbohydrate metabolism (CCM), i.e. the branched ED pathway of S. solfataricus and its regulation under temperature variation by the integration of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, kinetic and biochemical information. The long term goal of the project is to build a sufficiently precise replica for this part of the living cell (“a Silicon Cell”) to enable computation of life, particular its robustness to changes in temperature, at the system level.
[1] Siebers & Schönheit (2005) Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 8, 695-705
[2] Zillig et al. (1980) Arch. Microbiol. 125, 259-269
[3] Ahmed et al. (2005) Biochem. J. 390,
Project Structure
Source: Bettina Siebers
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Project partners:
Christa Schleper, University of Bergen, Norway (Project Coordinator)
Sonja Albers, Arnold Driessen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Nils-Kåre Birkeland, University of Bergen, Norway
Peter Ruoff, University of Stavanger, Norway
Dietmar Schomburg, University of Braunschweig, Germany
Bettina Siebers, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany (Vice Coordinator)
John van der Oost, University of Wageningen, The Netherlands
Hans Westerhoff, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Phil Wright, University of Sheffield, UK
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