Comparative Network Analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae
Author Information
Author(s): Verkhedkar Ketki D., Raman Karthik, Chandra Nagasuma R., Vishveshwara Saraswathi
Primary Institution: Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
Hypothesis
How do differences in the basic metabolism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium leprae, and Escherichia coli reflect in their metabolic networks?
Conclusion
The downsizing of the leprae genome has not significantly altered the global structure of its reaction network but has reduced the total number of alternate paths between its reactions.
Supporting Evidence
- The metabolic networks of M. tuberculosis, M. leprae, and E. coli are scale-free and small-world networks.
- Despite the reduced size of the M. leprae genome, its core metabolic pathways maintain similar shortest paths to those in M. tuberculosis.
- Identification of hubs in the mycobacterial networks reveals potential drug targets unique to these pathogens.
Takeaway
This study looks at how the metabolic networks of two bacteria compare to each other and to E. coli, showing that even with fewer genes, the basic connections in their metabolism remain similar.
Methodology
Metabolome-based reaction networks were constructed from the KEGG LIGAND database, followed by graph spectral analysis to identify hubs and sub-clusters of reactions.
Potential Biases
Potential bias due to reliance on the KEGG database, which may contain incomplete or inaccurate data.
Limitations
The study is limited by the assumption of constitutive expression of all enzymes, ignoring temporal expression due to regulation.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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