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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 20, 2026

High-Throughput Metabolic Profiling for Model Refinements of Microalgae

High-Throughput Metabolic Profiling for Model Refinements of Microalgae

Published on: December 4, 2021

Evolutionary constraints permeate large metabolic networks.

Andreas Wagner¹

¹University of Zurich, Dept. of Biochemistry, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland. aw@bioc.uzh.ch

BMC Evolutionary Biology

|September 15, 2009

Summary

Metabolic networks evolve under strong natural selection, with specific reaction combinations frequently co-occurring. This suggests metabolic evolution is constrained, not random, guiding the formation of functional enzyme sets.

Area of Science:

Microbial metabolism
Evolutionary biology
Bioinformatics

Background:

Metabolic networks exhibit significant evolutionary plasticity.
Prokaryotic metabolic pathways can compensate for blocked reactions.
New discoveries suggest metabolic networks may be weakly constrained.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the evolutionary constraints on metabolic networks.
To determine if gene co-occurrence patterns reveal evolutionary limitations.

Main Methods:

Analyzed gene co-occurrence in over 200 prokaryotic genera.
Characterized pairwise and higher-order associations of metabolic enzyme genes.
Assessed evolutionary patterns of reaction combinations.

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Daily Transfers, Archiving Populations, and Measuring Fitness in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli

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Workflow Based on the Combination of Isotopic Tracer Experiments to Investigate Microbial Metabolism of Multiple Nutrient Sources

Workflow Based on the Combination of Isotopic Tracer Experiments to Investigate Microbial Metabolism of Multiple Nutrient Sources

Published on: January 22, 2018

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Last Updated: Jun 20, 2026

High-Throughput Metabolic Profiling for Model Refinements of Microalgae

High-Throughput Metabolic Profiling for Model Refinements of Microalgae

Published on: December 4, 2021

Daily Transfers, Archiving Populations, and Measuring Fitness in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli

Daily Transfers, Archiving Populations, and Measuring Fitness in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli

Published on: August 18, 2023

Workflow Based on the Combination of Isotopic Tracer Experiments to Investigate Microbial Metabolism of Multiple Nutrient Sources

Workflow Based on the Combination of Isotopic Tracer Experiments to Investigate Microbial Metabolism of Multiple Nutrient Sources

Published on: January 22, 2018

Main Results:

The majority of metabolic reactions show constrained evolution.
Genes for specific reactions tend to co-occur, forming sets associated with biochemical pathways.
These co-occurring gene sets are not always physically linked, suggesting co-transfer is not the sole driver.

Conclusions:

Metabolic network evolution is significantly constrained by favored reaction combinations.
Natural selection plays a key role in shaping these co-evolving metabolic modules.
Genome sequencing data supports an evolutionary constraint-based approach to study metabolic modules.