Key Laboratory of Algal Biology, Institute of Hydrobiology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, People's Republic of China; Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, LCB, France.
School of Life Sciences and Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230027, People's Republic of China.
Trends Plant Sci. 2018 Dec;23(12):1116-1130. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2018.09.008. Epub 2018 Oct 3.
Carbon and nitrogen are the two most abundant nutrient elements for all living organisms, and their metabolism is tightly coupled. What are the signaling mechanisms that cells use to sense and control the carbon/nitrogen (C/N) metabolic balance following environmental changes? Based on studies in cyanobacteria, it was found that 2-phosphoglycolate derived from the oxygenase activity of Rubisco (ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase) and 2-oxoglutarate from the Krebs cycle act as the carbon- and nitrogen-starvation signals, respectively, and their concentration ratio likely reflects the status of the C/N metabolic balance. We will present and discuss the regulatory principles underlying the signaling mechanisms, which are likely to be conserved in other photosynthetic organisms. These concepts may also contribute to developments in the field of biofuel engineering or improvements in crop productivity.
碳和氮是所有生物中最丰富的两种营养元素，它们的代谢紧密偶联。当环境发生变化时，细胞用来感知和控制碳氮（C/N）代谢平衡的信号机制是什么？基于蓝藻的研究发现，Rubisco（核酮糖-1,5-二磷酸羧化酶/加氧酶）加氧酶活性产生的 2-磷酸甘油酸和三羧酸循环中的 2-酮戊二酸分别作为碳饥饿和氮饥饿信号，其浓度比可能反映了 C/N 代谢平衡的状态。我们将介绍和讨论信号机制背后的调节原理，这些原理可能在其他光合生物中保守。这些概念也可能有助于生物燃料工程领域的发展或提高作物生产力。
