Swain Anshuman, Fagan William F
Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Math Biosci Eng. 2018 Dec 11;16(1):168-186. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2019009.
The Warburg effect refers to a curious behavior observed in many organisms and cell types including cancer cells, yeast and bacteria, wherein both the efficient aerobic pathway and the inefficient fermentation pathway are utilized for respiration, despite the presence of ample oxygen. Also termed as overflow metabolism in bacteria, this phenomena has remained an enigmatic and poorly understood phenomenon despite years of experimental work. Here, we focus on bacterial cells and build a model of three trade offs involved in the utilization of aerobic and anaerobic respiration pathways (rate versus yield, surface area versus volume, and fast versus slow biomass production) to explain the observed behavior in cellular systems. The model so constructed also predicts changes in the relative usage of both pathways in terms of size and shape constraints of the cell, and identifies how substrate availability influences growth rate. Additionally, we use the model to explain certain complex phenomena in modern- and paleo-ecosystems, via the concept of overflow metabolism.
瓦伯格效应指的是在包括癌细胞、酵母和细菌在内的许多生物体和细胞类型中观察到的一种奇特行为，即在有充足氧气的情况下，高效的有氧呼吸途径和低效的发酵途径都被用于呼吸作用。在细菌中也被称为溢流代谢，尽管经过多年的实验研究，这种现象仍然是一个神秘且了解甚少的现象。在这里，我们聚焦于细菌细胞，构建了一个涉及有氧和无氧呼吸途径利用的三个权衡模型（速率与产量、表面积与体积、快速与缓慢生物量产生），以解释在细胞系统中观察到的行为。如此构建的模型还根据细胞的大小和形状限制预测了两种途径相对使用情况的变化，并确定了底物可用性如何影响生长速率。此外，我们通过溢流代谢的概念，利用该模型解释现代和古生态系统中的某些复杂现象。
