As text, or see rules and steps
# Isoleucine biosynthesis in GapMind is based on MetaCyc pathways # L-isoleucine biosynthesis I (from threonine) (metacyc:ILEUSYN-PWY), # II via citramalate (metacyc:PWY-5101), # or IV from propanoate (metacyc:PWY-5104). # These pathways share a common intermediate, 2-oxobutanoate, but vary # in how the 2-oxobutanoate is formed. # Pathway IV is included because propanoate is a common fermentative # end product and need not be a nutrient requirement, but # it is not always clear if it could be the main pathway to # isoleucine. # Pathway III (metacyc:PWY-5103), via glutamate mutase, # is not included because the first step (glutamate mutase, EC:5.4.99.1) # has not been linked to sequence and because no organism has been # demonstrated to rely on this pathway to form oxobutanoate. # Pathway V, from 2-methylbutanoate (metacyc:PWY-5108), # is not included. # (Ignore some CharProtDB annotations with threonine deaminase but no EC) ilvA threonine deaminase EC:4.3.1.19 ignore_other:threonine deaminase # ilvIH (or ilvGM) is a two-subunit enzyme that forms acetolactate or acetohydroxybutanoate # CH_124129 is probably correct but has limited data and vaguer annotations # ilvH acetohydroxybutanoate synthase catalytic subunit hmm:TIGR00118 term:acetohydroxy-acid synthase%large term:acetohydroxy acid synthase%large term:acetohydroxybutanoate synthase, catalytic subunit term:acetohydroxybutanoate synthase, catalytic subunit term:acetohydroxyacid synthase subunit B ignore_other:EC 2.2.1.6 ignore:CharProtDB::CH_124219 # The isolated catalytic subunit has some activity so it's not clear if the regulatory # subunit should be required. ilvI acetohydroxybutanoate synthase regulatory subunit hmm:TIGR00119 term:acetohydroxy-acid synthase%small term:acetohydroxybutanoate synthase, regulatory subunit term:small subunit of acetolactate synthase ignore_other:EC 2.2.1.6 # # The three EC numbers correspond to different preferences for NAD(P)H as the cofactor; # the transformations to the carbon skeleton are the same. ilvC 2-hydroxy-3-ketol-acid reductoisomerase EC:1.1.1.86 EC:1.1.1.382 EC:1.1.1.383 # The ignored enzyme is involved in salinosporamide A biosynthesis but does a very similar reaction # and is >50% identical to N515DRAFT_0569, which is confirmed by fitness data to be biosynthetic ilvD (R)-2,3-dihydroxy-3-methylpentanoate dehydratase EC:4.2.1.9 ignore:metacyc::MONOMER-15882 ilvE isoleucine transaminase EC:2.6.1.42 # 2-oxobutanoate is formed by deaminating threonine (pathway I, ilvA), via citramalate synthase (pathway II, cimA), or via propionyl-CoA (pathway III, prpE) oxobutanoate: ilvA # MetaCyc L-isoleucine biosynthesis II describes the formation of 2-oxobutanoate # via citramalate. The other steps are the same (although it gives a different # EC number for ilvC because of different cofactor preference) # The citramalate synthase from Leptopsira interrogans (LA_2350, NP_712531, or Q8F3Q1_LEPIN) has # been characterized biochemically but is not in the curated databases, see PMID:18498255 # The putative citramalate synthase HVO_0644 (D4GSQ2) from Haloferax volcanii is required # for isoleucine biosynthesis, see PMC4300041 cimA (R)-citramalate synthase EC:2.3.1.182 uniprot:Q8F3Q1_LEPIN uniprot:D4GSQ2 # In leucine synthesis, LeuCD allows the dehydration of 2-isopropylmalate and hydration to 3-isopropylmalate. # Similarly, many of these enzymes allow the isomerization of citramalate to 3-methylmalate via citraconate. # Citramalate isomerase is usually given as EC 4.2.1.35, as opposed to 4.2.1.33 for traditional leuCD. # However, in initial testing, all of the bacteria with the citramalate pathway appeared to have "typical" leuBCD # (Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough, Desulfovibrio vulgaris Miyazaki F, # Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Magnetospirillum magneticum AMB-1, and # Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942). # Ignore a 2,3-methylmalate dehydratase (Q0QLE2,Q0QLE1) which is >50% identical to # leuCD from DvH (DVU2982,DVU2983) # Ignore some BRENDA annotations without subunit information, # and ignore CharProtDB::CH_122621 (leuCD fusion) which is not actually characterized # DvH leuC (DVU2982) has similarity to both LeuC and to homoaconitase, and fitness data confirms # its role in amino acid biosynthesis, so explicitly include it leuC citramalate isomerase large subunit term:citramalate isomerase large subunit term:3-isopropylmalate dehydratase large subunit term:3-isopropylmalate dehydratase%LeuC hmm:TIGR00170 hmm:TIGR02083 hmm:TIGR02086 ignore:SwissProt::Q0QLE2 ignore_other:EC 4.2.1.33 ignore_other:EC 4.2.1.35 uniprot:LEUC_DESVH ignore:CharProtDB::CH_122621 leuD citramalate isomerase small subunit term:citramalate isomerase small subunit term:3-isopropylmalate dehydratase small subunit term:3-isopropylmalate dehydratase%LeuD hmm:TIGR00171 hmm:TIGR02084 hmm:TIGR02087 ignore:SwissProt::Q0QLE1 ignore_other:EC 4.2.1.33 ignore_other:EC 4.2.1.35 ignore:CharProtDB::CH_122621 # The dehydrogenase is encoded by a leuB-type enzyme. # Similarly as for leuCD, any 3-isopropylmalate dehydrogenase should be assumed to be capable of this reaction leuB 3-methylmalate dehydrogenase EC:1.1.1.85 EC:1.1.1.n5 oxobutanoate: cimA leuC leuD leuB prpE propionyl-CoA synthetase term:propionyl-CoA synthetase term:propionate--CoA ligase EC:6.2.1.17 # The key reaction is alpha-ketobutyrate synthase or # 2-oxobutanoate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (in reverse) # These are heterodimeric enzymes and the only one mentioned by MetaCyc is # an enzyme from Sulfolobus tokodaii 7 that includes ST2300 (alpha subunit, OFOA_SULSP). # The beta subunit is OFOB_SULSP (but metacyc seems not to know this). # Some related enzymes also are believed to do this ofoa 2-oxobutanoate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase, alpha subunit uniprot:OFOA1_SULTO uniprot:OFOA_SULSP uniprot:OFOA_SACSO uniprot:OFOA2_SULTO uniprot:OFOA1_AERPE uniprot:OFOA2_AERPE ofob 2-oxobutanoate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase, beta subunit uniprot:OFOB1_SULTO uniprot:OFOB_SULSP uniprot:OFOB_SACSO uniprot:OFOB2_SULTO uniprot:OFOB1_AERPE uniprot:OFOB2_AERPE oxobutanoate: prpE ofoa ofob # MetaCyc L-isoleucine biosynthesis V describes biosynthesis from 2-methylbutanoate, which # is a fermentation end product in the rumen. This is an anusual precursor # so I did not include it. all: oxobutanoate ilvI ilvH ilvC ilvD ilvE
Each pathway is defined by a set of rules based on individual steps or genes. Candidates for each step are identified by using ublast (a fast alternative to protein BLAST) against a database of manually-curated proteins (most of which are experimentally characterized) or by using HMMer with enzyme models (usually from TIGRFam). Ublast hits may be split across two different proteins.
A candidate for a step is "high confidence" if either:
Otherwise, a candidate is "medium confidence" if either:
Other blast hits with at least 50% coverage are "low confidence."
Steps with no high- or medium-confidence candidates may be considered "gaps." For the typical bacterium that can make all 20 amino acids, there are 1-2 gaps in amino acid biosynthesis pathways. For diverse bacteria and archaea that can utilize a carbon source, there is a complete high-confidence catabolic pathway (including a transporter) just 38% of the time, and there is a complete medium-confidence pathway 63% of the time. Gaps may be due to:
GapMind relies on the predicted proteins in the genome and does not search the six-frame translation. In most cases, you can search the six-frame translation by clicking on links to Curated BLAST for each step definition (in the per-step page).
For more information, see the paper from 2019 on GapMind for amino acid biosynthesis, the paper from 2022 on GapMind for carbon sources, or view the source code, or see changes to Amino acid biosynthesis since the publication.
If you notice any errors or omissions in the step descriptions, or any questionable results, please let us know
by Morgan Price, Arkin group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory