The behavior of cells is mainly determined by two factors, including the influence of their own genes and the chemical reaction that maintains the normal function of cells, namely metabolism. Metabolism has two main purposes: breaking high-energy bonds and providing energy for the body; All the compounds needed to make cells.
People are exploring the genome of an organism, which is equivalent to drawing a complete DNA "blueprint" of an organism. This "blueprint" can provide people with a wealth of information, including the appearance of specific organisms and so on. But now this picture is not complete. The difficulty lies in that a gene can be regulated by other genes or a certain region of DNA, and it can also be changed by acquired factors-for example, some small molecules will attach to DNA chains and change the expression of genes like switches.
Previous studies have shown that metabolic networks may also play a regulatory role in genes. Metabolic network is a general term for a series of biochemical reactions in organisms. These reactions mainly depend on the nutrients ingested by cells. These nutrients, including sugar, amino acids, fatty acids and vitamins, can be obtained from the food we eat every day.
An international research team, Dr. Marcus and Francis of Cambridge University? Under the leadership of Crick Institute, the degree of this situation has been verified, and the important role of metabolism in the most basic function of cells has been clarified. Their experimental object is still yeast cells. Yeast is an ideal model for large-scale experiments. Because it is much simpler to operate than animal models, and many of its important genes and basic cellular mechanisms are the same or very similar to those of animals and humans.
Researchers control the levels of major metabolites in yeast cells and explore the effects of this change on gene behavior and gene expression products. The results show that the change of cell metabolism can affect the behavior of about 80% genes and the expression of their products.
Dr. Marcus explained: "Cell metabolism plays a far more important role in the cell itself than we thought before." "The nutrients ingested by cells can affect almost all genes. In fact, many times, this effect is very obvious. Changing the metabolism of cells may completely change the expression of genes.
"Traditionally, genes control the process of breaking down nutrients into important molecules. But now it is clear that the decomposition of nutrients will also affect the expression of genes. "
Researchers believe that this discovery may have a wide range of effects, including understanding the human body's response to certain drugs. For example, in cancer treatment, tumor cells will form a variety of gene mutations, fundamentally changing the metabolic network within the cells. On the contrary, the change of metabolic network will affect the behavior of its own genes. This may explain why some drugs are ineffective for some people.
"Our findings are also of great significance to scientists," Dr. Marcus said. "When biological experiments cannot be repeated under experimental conditions, we often blame careless researchers. However, the possible reason is that small differences in metabolism can change the experimental results. We need to establish more perfect laboratory procedures in order to better control metabolic errors. This will help us design better and more reliable experiments. "