Is a metabolic control for the doubling of the macromolecule synthesizing machinery possible.

The usual models for cell multiplication only involve macromolecular events and ignore the influence of metabolism. The conjecture presented here shows how metabolism could be involved. Separate pathways might cooperate for the synthesis of a small molecule, acting as positive control of several macromolecular syntheses, including stable RNA synthesis. A detailed analysis of the available data showing an influence of metabolites on macromolecular syntheses suggests that two main pathways might cooperate, one involving serine and folic acid metabolism and the second involving threonine and the branched chain aminoacids. Experiments are suggested to challenge the conjecture.

PMID: 435558 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]