Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28049137›Full record

ArticleMolecular systems biology2017

Few regulatory metabolites coordinate expression of central metabolic genes in Escherichia coli.

Karl Kochanowski, Luca Gerosa, Simon F Brunner, Dimitris Christodoulou, Yaroslav V Nikolaev, Uwe Sauer

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Molecular systems biology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
73citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
8.5field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

73 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 141 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Systematic identification of allosteric effectors inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. Article
  16. Fructose-1-kinase has pleiotropic roles inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Regulation of phosphate starvation-specific responses inMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2023
    Review

13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Karl KochanowskiInstitute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-1884-7694
Luca GerosaInstitute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-6805-9410
Simon F BrunnerInstitute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-5935-6189
Dimitris ChristodoulouInstitute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Yaroslav V NikolaevInstitute of Molecular Biology & Biophysics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-1479-7474
Uwe SauerInstitute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland sauer@imsb.biol.ethz.ch.ORCID 0000-0002-5923-0770
ETH Zurich · CH

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Transcription networks consist of hundreds of transcription factors with thousands of often overlapping target genes. While we can reliably measure gene expression changes, we still understand relatively little why expression changes the way it does. How does a coordinated response emerge in such complex networks and how many input signals are necessary to achieve it? Here, we unravel the regulatory program of gene expression in Escherichia coli central carbon metabolism with more than 30 known transcription factors. Using a library of fluorescent transcriptional reporters, we comprehensively quantify the activity of central metabolic promoters in 26 environmental conditions. The expression patterns were dominated by growth rate-dependent global regulation for most central metabolic promoters in concert with highly condition-specific activation for only few promoters. Using an approximate mathematical description of promoter activity, we dissect the contribution of global and specific transcriptional regulation. About 70% of the total variance in promoter activity across conditions was explained by global transcriptional regulation. Correlating the remaining specific transcriptional regulation of each promoter with the cell's metabolome response across the same conditions identified potential regulatory metabolites. Remarkably, cyclic AMP, fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, and fructose-1-phosphate alone explained most of the specific transcriptional regulation through their interaction with the two major transcription factors Crp and Cra. Thus, a surprisingly simple regulatory program that relies on global transcriptional regulation and input from few intracellular metabolites appears to be sufficient to coordinate E. coli central metabolism and explain about 90% of the experimentally observed transcription changes in 100 genes.

Indexed as

Genes, BacterialMetabolic Networks and PathwaysEscherichia coliGene Expression Regulation, BacterialGene Regulatory NetworksGenes, ReporterMetabolomeModels, TheoreticalPromoter Regions, Geneticmetabolismmodelingnetwork inferencetranscriptional regulationtranscription factors

Identifiers

PMID28049137
PMCPMC5293157
OpenAlexW2561548155

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.