Metabolite Damage and Damage Control in a Minimal Genome
Drago Haas, Antje M. K. Thamm, Jiayi Sun, Lili Huang, Lijie Sun, Guillaume A.W. Beaudoin, Kim S. Wise, Claudia Lerma‐Ortiz, Steven D. Bruner, Marian Breuer, Zaida Luthey‐Schulten, Jiusheng Lin, Mark A. Wilson, Greg Brown, Alexander F. Yakunin, Inna Kurilyak, Jacob Folz, Oliver Fiehn, John I. Glass, Andrew D. Hanson, Christopher S. Henry, Valérie de Crécy‐Lagard
Abstract
Metabolite damage and repair mechanisms are being increasingly recognized. We present here compelling genetic and biochemical evidence for the universal importance of these mechanisms by demonstrating that stripping a genome down to its barest essentials leaves metabolite damage control systems in place. Furthermore, our metabolomic and cheminformatic results point to the existence of a network of metabolite damage and damage control reactions that extends far beyond the corners of it that have been characterized so far. In sum, there can be little room left to doubt that metabolite damage and the systems that counter it are mainstream metabolic processes that cannot be separated from life itself.