At a higher level enzymes group conceptually into metabolic pathways as part of a dynamic information processing system - substrates are processed by enzymes yielding other substrates. A new method based on a combination of sequence information with graph-topology of the underlying pathway is presented. A global distance between pathways is defined by using individual distances between sequences of the same functional role. Gap-penalties are introduced for existing pathways with missing functional roles. As an example the method is applied to pathways related to the utilization of ferredoxin as redox-agent.
First results report a high versatility and controversial phylogenies.
Functional roles which are utilized in these very pathways are common in many pathways of the cell. Beside a more comprehensive understanding of similarities and differences between organisms, this method already indicates different evolutionary rates between substrates and enzymes. It is also capable to hint towards variation and specialization of pathways in the sense of an evolution of metabolisms. Materials on this site are copyrighted .