University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
September 15th, 2017 – Fall Seminar
Time and Location: Noon in Meyerhoff Chemistry, Room 120
Host: Dr. Zeev Rosenzweig
A Regulatory Metabolic Complex for Glucose Metabolism in Living Cells: the Glucosome
Abstract
Sequential metabolic enzymes of glucose metabolism have long been hypothesized to form multienzyme complexes that regulate glucose flux in living cells. However, it has been challenging to directly observe these complexes and their functional roles in living systems. Using quantitative live-cell imaging, we provide multiple lines of compelling evidence that the cytosolic, rate-limiting enzymes in human glucose metabolism are spatially organized into various sizes of cytosolic clusters in cells. Subsequent biophysical characterizations further support the formation of multienzyme metabolic complexes in cells. Importantly, high-content metabolic flux assays reveal that the direction of glucose flux between glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway and serine biosynthesis is spatially regulated by the multienzyme complexes in a cluster size-dependent manner. Collectively, we demonstrate a functionally active, multienzyme metabolic complex for glucose metabolism in living human cells.