Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AJ, UK.
Nat Chem. 2017 Apr;9(4):310-317. doi: 10.1038/nchem.2624. Epub 2016 Oct 10.
Phosphoenol pyruvate is the highest-energy phosphate found in living organisms and is one of the most versatile molecules in metabolism. Consequently, it is an essential intermediate in a wide variety of biochemical pathways, including carbon fixation, the shikimate pathway, substrate-level phosphorylation, gluconeogenesis and glycolysis. Triose glycolysis (generation of ATP from glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate via phosphoenol pyruvate) is among the most central and highly conserved pathways in metabolism. Here, we demonstrate the efficient and robust synthesis of phosphoenol pyruvate from prebiotic nucleotide precursors, glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde. Furthermore, phosphoenol pyruvate is derived within an α-phosphorylation controlled reaction network that gives access to glyceric acid 2-phosphate, glyceric acid 3-phosphate, phosphoserine and pyruvate. Our results demonstrate that the key components of a core metabolic pathway central to energy transduction and amino acid, sugar, nucleotide and lipid biosyntheses can be reconstituted in high yield under mild, prebiotically plausible conditions.
磷酸烯醇丙酮酸是生物体内发现的能量最高的磷酸酯，也是代谢中用途最广泛的分子之一。因此，它是各种生化途径中的重要中间产物，包括碳固定、莽草酸途径、底物水平磷酸化、糖异生和糖酵解。三碳糖酵解（通过磷酸烯醇丙酮酸从甘油醛 3-磷酸生成 ATP）是代谢中最核心和高度保守的途径之一。在这里，我们展示了从前生物核苷酸前体、甘油醛和甘油醛高效且稳健地合成磷酸烯醇丙酮酸。此外，磷酸烯醇丙酮酸是在α-磷酸化控制的反应网络中产生的，该网络可获得甘油酸 2-磷酸、甘油酸 3-磷酸、磷酸丝氨酸和丙酮酸。我们的结果表明，在温和的、前生物合理的条件下，可以以高产率重新构建与能量转导以及氨基酸、糖、核苷酸和脂质生物合成的核心代谢途径的关键组成部分。
