Metabolic Pathways, Third Edition: Volume IV: Nucleic Acids, Protein Synthesis, and Coenzymes focuses on the metabolic pathways of the major biological constituents of living organisms, namely, nucleic acids, proteins, and coenzymes. The biosynthesis and metabolism of purines and pyrimidines, nucleotides, riboflavin and related compounds, and vitamin B6 are discussed. The biogenesis and metabolism of thiamine and folic acid are also considered. This volume is comprised of seven chapters and begins with an analysis of metabolic control and enzymology of purines and pyrimidines such as inosinic acid and nucleotides. The next chapter is devoted to the biosynthesis and metabolism of nucleotides and nucleic acids, making reference to deoxyribonucleotides as well as RNA and DNA. Some of the reactions involving nucleotides are classified and briefly discussed. The reader is then introduced to protein synthesis, paying particular attention to the chemical features of the synthesis of the peptide bond and the characteristics of the genetic code implicated in this process. The remaining chapters focus on riboflavin and related compounds, thiamine, folic acid, and vitamin B6. This book will be a useful resource for biochemists and biologists.

This textbook presents solid tools for in silico engineering biology, offering students a step-by-step guide to mastering the smart design of metabolic pathways. The first part explains the Design-Build-Test-Learn-cycle engineering approach to biology, discussing the basic tools to model biological and chemistry-based systems. Using these basic tools, the second part focuses on various computational protocols for metabolic pathway design, from enzyme selection to pathway discovery and enumeration. In the context of industrial biotechnology, the final part helps readers understand the challenges of scaling up and optimisation. By working with the free programming language Scientific Python, this book provides easily accessible tools for studying and learning the principles of modern in silico metabolic pathway design. Intended for advanced undergraduates and master’s students in biotechnology, biomedical engineering, bioinformatics and systems biology students, the introductory sections make it also useful for beginners wanting to learn the basics of scientific coding and find real-world, hands-on examples.

This volume outlines key steps associated with the design, building, and testing of synthetic metabolic pathways for optimal cell factory performance and robustness, and illustrates how data-driven learning from these steps can be used for rational cost-effective engineering of cell factories with improved performance. Chapters are divided into four sections focusing on the four steps of the iterative design-build-test-learn cycle related to modern cell factory engineering. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, Synthetic Metabolic Pathways: Methods and Protocols aims to ensure successful results in the further study of this vital field.

Sequence - Evolution - Function is an introduction to the computational approaches that play a critical role in the emerging new branch of biology known as functional genomics. The book provides the reader with an understanding of the principles and approaches of functional genomics and of the potential and limitations of computational and experimental approaches to genome analysis. Sequence - Evolution - Function should help bridge the "digital divide" between biologists and computer scientists, allowing biologists to better grasp the peculiarities of the emerging field of Genome Biology and to learn how to benefit from the enormous amount of sequence data available in the public databases. The book is non-technical with respect to the computer methods for genome analysis and discusses these methods from the user's viewpoint, without addressing mathematical and algorithmic details. Prior practical familiarity with the basic methods for sequence analysis is a major advantage, but a reader without such experience will be able to use the book as an introduction to these methods. This book is perfect for introductory level courses in computational methods for comparative and functional genomics.

Enzyme Regulation in Metabolic Pathways shows the reader how to understand the roles of enzymes and their kinetic constants in intermediary metabolism. It provides a means of correlating data obtained in experimental studies to multiple possible mechanisms through which some enzyme may catalyze the conversion of a substrate to a product. Although not the most appropriate means of determining some potential kinetic mechanism, quasi-equilibrium assumptions are used throughout the book, keeping the rate equation derivations simple. Actual metabolic pathways with known (presumed) positive and negative regulation events are linked to these potential kinetic mechanisms using both rate equation derivations and data plots illustrating how the rate equation derivations can be used to explain the data plots. This book will be a valuable reference for students in biological sciences and biochemistry majors required to take a core course in enzymology.

Metabolic engineering is a rapidly evolving field that is being applied for the optimization of many different industrial processes. In this issue of Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, developments in different areas of metabolic engineering are reviewed. The contributions discuss the application of metabolic engineering in the improvement of yield and productivity - illustrated by amino acid production and the production of novel compounds - in the production of polyketides and extension of the substrate range - and in the engineering of S. cerevisiae for xylose metabolism, and the improvement of a complex biotransformation process.