Research Highlights

• Subject Category:
  • Cell & molecular biology

Published online: 17 March 2010 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2010.34

Metabolism: The role of acetylation in microbes

Felix Cheung

Introduction

© (2010) istockphoto.com/Sebastian Kaulitzki

Protein acetylation — the introduction of an acetyl group into a protein — is a key regulatory mechanism for a wide range of cellular processes in mammals, but its function in microbes is largely unknown. Guoping Zhao and Shimin Zhao at Fudan University in Shanghai and co-workers¹ have now demonstrated that protein acetylation plays a major role in the regulation of microbial metabolism.

The researchers used mass spectrometry to analyse purified peptides from Salmonella enterica bacteria that were under either glucose-based glycolysis or citrate-based gluconeogenesis. They identified 235 acetylated peptides that matched to 191 proteins in Salmonella — about half of which participate in metabolism.

The researchers found that about 90% of the enzymes serving central metabolism had undergone acetylation. The acetylation status of these enzymes changes in response to different carbon sources — enzymes showed greater acetylation in cells grown in glucose than in cells grown in citrate.

In addition, the researchers were able to control the relative activities of key enzymes controlling the direction of glycolysis versus gluconeogenesis and the branching between the citrate cycle and glyoxylate bypass by acetylation. The findings suggest that protein acetylation may help Salmonella respond to environmental changes by promptly sensing their energy status and flexibly altering reaction rates and directions.

Noting also that acetylated metabolic enzymes are known to have an important role in human metabolism (see Metabolism: The role of acetylation in cells), the researchers believe that protein acetylation is a metabolism-regulating mechanism that is evolutionarily conserved in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes.

The authors of this work are from:
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences and Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; MOST-Shanghai Laboratory of Disease and Health Genomics, Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai, Shanghai, China; Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Bioinformatics Center and Laboratory of Systems Biology, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; Molecular Cell Biology Laboratory, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis, Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Institute of Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China; Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; Department of Pharmacology and Moores Cancer Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA; Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences and Prince of Wales Hospital, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

Reference

1. Wang, Q. et al. Acetylation of metabolic enzymes coordinates carbon source utilization and metabolic flux. Science 327, 1004–1007 (2010).  | Article | PubMed | OpenURL | | ChemPort |