BIOL 178 |
| Fructose is the number one commercial sweetener in Western Civilization and large amounts of fructose can be toxic, yet fructose metabolism remains poorly characterized. The lack of understanding of the fructose catabolic pathways is highlighted by metabolic defects; essential fructosemia and hereditary fructose intolerance. Fructose allegedly is metabolized via either of two pathways, the fructose-6-phosphate pathway and/or the fructose-1-phosphate pathway. Early metabolic studies could not clearly discriminate between these two pathways in some tissues nor could they detect specific cell types in different tissues capable of fructose metabolism. The collection of expression sequence tags (ESTs), with its associated annotation, is mined for overlapping expression patterns for those genes involved in fructose metabolism. The algorithm developed for these studies improves on current expression profile databases and is comparable with experimental expression data. Of the tissues that show expression of the genes involved in fructose metabolism, the brain was the most remarkable. Demonstration of co-expression of genes specific for fructose metabolism in Purkinje cells validates this analysis and suggests an active fructose-1-phosphate pathway in specific cells. The brain can metabolize a limited number of carbon sources under normal physiological conditions; however, these and other molecular studies are revealing that other carbon sources, including fructose, may play a role in neuro-energetics. The general applicability of these analyses is discussed. |
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Uncovering the Metabolome and Metabolic Defects
9:00 AM-12:00 PM, Wednesday, 13 September 2006 Moscone Center -- Room 238, Oral
Division of Biological Chemistry |