Evolution of Domain Compositions in the Metabolic Networks of Human and Escherichia Coli

It is widely recognized that complexity of metabolic networks arises from duplication, recruitment and recombination of enzyme protein domains. However, variations of the domain evolution mechanisms among different organisms and metabolic subsystems are not well known. In this work we demonstrate strong heterogeneity of domain evolution mechanisms by comparing the domain compositions of the metabolic networks in human and Escherichia coli. While addition of novel domains and duplication of domains from enzymes catalyzing other reactions dominate the evolution in both species, incorporation of novel functions and domain duplication within the same reactions are much more frequent in human. Furthermore, different metabolic processes are driven by distinct evolution mechanisms. Energy utilization and biosynthesis of nucleotides, amino acids, and lipids retain more conserved domains and have more intra-reaction domain duplication events in human. In contrast, many alternative pathways of a...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: BIOCOMP
• Authors: Chen-Hsiang Yeang, Nils Baas
• Keywords: BIOCOMP 2007, BIOCOMP 2009, Domain Evolution Mechanisms, Evolution Mechanisms, Metabolic