Synthesis and degradation of lysine in various biological systems

• Grant number: 06/04992-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2007
• End date: February 28, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Arruda
• Grantee: Guilherme Coutinho de Melo Serrano
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Lysine is an essential amino acid considered to be limiting in cereal crops, the most important source of human and animal food. Deficiency in this amino acid uptake or metabolism may lead to serious disorders as sub-nutrition, apoplexy, osteoporosis, cancer, and mental retardation. Great efforts has been done toward the complete understanding the metabolic pathways associate to this amino acid and the development of plant with higher nutritional value has been a trend.Lysine biosynthetic pathway is already known in bacteria, fungi, protozoan and plants. However, until now, no one was able to demonstrate its existence in animals. The lysine catabolism is present in all organisms, but only recently the saccarophine pathway, the one that exist in plants, has been discovered. The great importance of this amino acid, the great field not yet explored and strong preliminary computational results is what led us to propose this work, witch intentions are to characterize the synthesis and catabolism of lysine in a range of living organisms. It is the first time that strong genomic evidences are pointed out for the existence of lysine biosynthetic pathway in animals. A bacterial lateral gene transfer hypothesis to this pathway will be investigated

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SERRANO, Guilherme Coutinho de Melo. Synthesis and degradation of lysine in higher organisms: a possible bacterial origin. 2010. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia Campinas, SP.