Acyl carrier protein participates in a number of biosynthetic pathways in Escherichia coli: fatty acid biosynthesis, phospholipid biosynthesis, lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis, activation of prohemolysin, and membrane-derived oligosaccharide biosynthesis. The first four pathways require the protein's prosthetic group, phosphopantetheine, to assemble an acyl chain or to transfer an acyl group fr...

Using the dynamic mean-field approximation of the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP), we investigate the effect of small changes in the initiation, elongation, and termination rates along the mRNA strand on the steady-state protein translation rate. We show that the sensitivity of mRNA translation is equal to the sensitivity of the maximal eigenvalue of a symmetric, nonnegative...

Tetrapyrroles such as chlorophylls and bacteriochlorophylls play a fundamental role in the energy absorption and transduction activities of photosynthetic organisms. Because of these molecules, however, photosynthetic organisms are also prone to photooxidative damage. They had to evolve highly efficient strategies to control tetrapyrrole biosynthesis and to prevent the accumulation of free inte...

Vitamin B1 (thiamin) is an essential compound in all organisms acting as a cofactor in key metabolic reactions and has furthermore been implicated in responses to DNA damage and pathogen attack in plants. Despite the fact that it was discovered almost a century ago and deficiency is a widespread health problem, much remains to be deciphered about its biosynthesis. The vitamin is composed of a t...

Starch biosynthesis and starch granule packaging in cereal endosperms involve a coordinated action of starch biosynthesis enzymes and coordination with other metabolisms. Because directly binding to starch granules, starch granule-associated proteins (SGAPs) are essential to understand the underlying mechanisms, however the information on SGAPs remains largely unknown. Here, we dissected develo...