Abstract
Metabolic pathways of prokaryotes are more biochemically diverse than is generally recognized. Distinctive biochemical features are shared by phylogenetic clusters. The hierarchical levels of characterstate clustering depends upon evolutionary events which fortuitously became fixed in the genome of a common ancestor. Prokaryotes can now be ordered on a phylogenetic tree. This allows the evolutionary steps that underlie the construction and regulation of appropriately complex biochemical pathways to be traced in an evolutionary progression of prokaryote types that house these pathways. Essentially the approach is to deduce ancestral character states at ever deeper phylogenetic levels, utilizing logical principles of maximum parsimony. The current perspective on the evolution of the biochemical pathway for biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids is developed as a case-in-point model for analyses that should be feasible with many major metabolic systems. Phenylalanine biosynthesis probably arose prior to the addition of branches leading to tyrosine and tryptophan. An evolutionary scenario is developed that begins with non-enzymatic reactions which may have operated in primitive systems, followed by the evolution of an enzymatic system that pre-dated the divergence of major lineages of modern eubacteria (Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative purple bacteria, and cyanobacteria).
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Ahmad, S. and Jensen, R. A.: 1986,Trends Biochem. Sci. 11, 108.
Ahmad, S. and Jensen, R. A.: 1987,Arch. Microbiol. 147, 8.
Ahmad, S., Rightmire, B., and Jensen, R. A.: 1986,J. Bacteriol. 165, 146.
Ahmad, S., Johnson, J. L., and Jensen, R. A.: 1987,J. Mol. Evol. 25.
Bachmann, B. J.: 1983,Microbiol. Rev. 47, 180.
Berry, A., Ahmad, S., Liss, A., and Jensen, R. A.: 1987,J. Gen. Microbiol. 133.
Bonnner, C. A. and Jensen, R. A.: 1985,Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 238, 237.
Byng, G. S., Kane, J. F., and Jensen, R. A.: 1982,Crit. Rev. Microbiol. 9, 277.
Champney, W. S. and Jensen, R. A.: 1970,J. Biol. Chem. 245, 3763.
Cunin, R., Glansdorff, N., Pierard, A., and Stalon, V.: 1986,Microbiol. Rev. 50, 314.
Fazel, A. M. and Jensen, R. A.: 1980,Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 200, 165.
Fazel, A. M., Bowen, J. R., and Jensen, R. A.: 1980,Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77, 1270.
Fiske, M. J., Whitaker, R. J., and Jensen, R. A.: 1983,J. Bacteriol. 154, 623.
Fox, G. E., Stackebrandt, E., Hespell, R. B., Gibson, J., Maniloff, J., Dyer, T. A., Wolfe, R. S., Balch, W. E., Tanner, R. S., Magrum, L. J., Zablen, L. B., Blakemore, R., Gupta, R., Bonen, L., Lewis, B. J., Stahl, D. A., Luehrsen, K. R., Chen, K. N., and Woese, C. R.: 1980,Science 209, 457.
Gibson, F.: 1964,Biochem. J. 90, 256.
Goncharoff, P. and Nichols, B. P.: 1984,J. Bacteriol. 159, 57.
Hall, G. C. and Jensen, R. A.: 1981a,J. Bacteriol 148, 361.
Hall, G. C. and Jensen, R. A.: 1981b,Curr. Microbiol. 6, 189.
Hall, G. C., Flick, M. B., Gherna, R. L., and Jensen, R. A.: 1982,J. Bacteriol. 149, 65.
Horowitz, N. H.: 1945,Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 31, 153.
Hudson, G. S. and Davidson, B. E.: 1984,J. Mol. Biol. 180, 1023.
Jensen, R. A.: 1976,Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 30, 409.
Jensen, R. A.: 1985,Mol. Biol. Evol. 2, 92.
Jensen, R. A.: 1986,Rec. Adv. Phytochem. 20, 57.
Jensen, R. A. and Calhoun, D. H.: 1981,Crit. Rev. Microbiol. 8, 229.
Jensen, R. A., and Fischer, R.: 1986, in S. P. Colowick and N. O. Kaplan (eds.),Methods in Enzymology — Metabolism of Aromatic Amino Acids and Amines, Academic Press, Inc. (Orlando, FL).142, 472.
Jensen, R. A. and Hall, G. C.: 1982,Trends Biochem. Sci. 7, 177.
Jensen, R. A. and Nester, E. W.: 1965,J. Mol. Biol. 12, 468.
Jensen, R. A. and Pierson, D. L.: 1975,Nature 254, 667.
Jensen, R. A. and Rebello, J. L.: 1970, in C. J. Corum (ed.),Indust. Microbiol., American Institute of Biological Sciences, Washington, D. C., Vol. 11, p. 105.
Jensen, R. A. and Stenmark, S. L.: 1975,J. Mol. Evol. 4, 249.
Jung, E. and Jensen, R. A.: 1986,Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 83, 7231.
Kane, J. F., Holmes, W. F., and Jensen, R. A.: 1972,J. Biol. Chem. 247, 1587.
Lacey, J. C., Hall, L. M., and Mullins, D. W.: 1985,Orig. Life 16, 69.
Oyaizu, H. and Woese, C. R.: 1985,System. Appl. Microbiol. 6, 257.
Pierson, D. L. and Jensen, R. A.: 1974,J. Mol. Biol. 90, 563.
Riley, M.: 1985, in M. K. Hecht, B. Wallace, and G. T. Prance (eds.),Evolutionary Biology, Plenum Pub. Corp. Vol. 19, pp. 1–36.
Rubin, J. L. and Jensen, R. A.: 1985,Plant Physiol. 79, 711.
Sanderson, K. E. and Roth, J. R.: 1983,Microbiol. Rev. 47, 410.
Shiio, I. and Sugimoto, S.: 1979,J. Biochem. (Tokyo) 86, 17.
Shultz, J., Hermodson, M. A., and Herrmann, K. M.: 1981,FEBS Lett. 131, 108.
Stenmark, S. L., Pierson, D. L., Glover, G. I., and Jensen, R. A.: 1974,Nature 247, 290.
Weber, A. L. and Miller, S. L.: 1981,J. Mol. Evol. 17, 273.
Whitaker, R. J., Berry, A., Byng, G. S., Fiske, M. J., and Jensen, R. A.: 1985,J. Mol. Evol. 21, 139.
Woese, C. R.: 1987,Microbiol. Rev. 51, 221.
Whitaker, R. J., Fiske, M., and Jensen, R. A.: 1982,J. Biol. Chem. 257, 12789.
Wong, J. T.-F.: 1984, in J. Ricard and Cornish-Bowden (eds.),Dynamics of Biochemical Systems, pp. 247–258.
Zamir, L. O., Tiberio, R., and Jensen, R. A.: 1983,Tet. Lett. 28, 2815.
Yanofsky, C.: 1984,Mol. Biol. Evol. 1, 143.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, Journal Series No. 8251.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ahmad, S., Jensen, R.A. New prospects for deducing the evolutionary history of metabolic pathways in prokaryotes: Aromatic biosynthesis as a case-in-point. Origins Life Evol Biosphere 18, 41–57 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01808779
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01808779