A computational method identifies the functions of orphan enzymes by organizing them into metabolic pathways; the prediction of a new l-gulonate catabolic pathway is experimentally tested and confirmed.
The production of two secondary metabolites is co-regulated in a bacterium via an intermediate in one pathway that is converted into signals to activate the second pathway.
Many vertebrates are able to synthesize a sunscreen compound de novo and the pathway involved can be used for heterologous production of the compound in yeast.
The genome of Thermovibrio ammonificans encodes ancestral pathways (e.g., hydrogen oxidation) and more recently acquired ones (e.g., nitrate reduction) and a hybrid pathway for CO2 fixation.
Elephants and fruit bats have evolved large brains even though they have lost a gene that is fundamental to the supply of energy to the brain when glucose is not available.
Analysis of experiments on bacteria suggests that the dependence of cell size on growth rate is not an adaptation but a causal consequence of a regulatory mechanism that controls DNA replication.