SysMO Sulfolobus (Schleper)-WesterhoffManchester

对于环境的大量变化，大多数活着的有机体都是相当健壮的。哺乳动物和鸟类通过让不同的器官和细胞以高度协调的方式处理不同的任务，实现了大部分的健壮性。单细胞微生物的健壮性很大程度上来自细胞内网络。对于生命的三个领域中的两个领域，这在某种程度上是被理解的，但对于最近发现的生命形式，即古生代，还根本不是这样。然而，正是这些古生代受到了来自环境的最极端的挑战，因为它们中的一些生活在高温喷口或盐分中，并且容易发生突然和极端的变化。直到最近，这门科学才发展起来，分析细胞内网络如何产生那些网络组件所不具备的重要属性。在很大程度上，以同样的方式，集体行动比同样数量的个人行动更有效率。)这本《系统生物学》将在这里进行部署和调整，以分析目前适用于此类研究的最极端的古生物之一--Sulfolobus solfararicus的健壮机制。该研究项目汇集了来自四个欧洲国家的许多最合适的专业知识。它将侧重于所有生物体可能最重要和最庞大的生化功能的健壮性，即它们的主要碳和能量新陈代谢。它将研究微生物细胞所经历的最普遍的扰动，即温度变化。将制作中央碳和能量新陈代谢的计算机“复制品”。无论是在协调良好的实验中，还是在计算机复制中，生物体实现健壮的各种机制都将被识别和量化。将确定，如果其中一个机制被取消，这些机制可以在多大程度上相互取代。系统生物学的这一新方面将提出新的方法来设计针对寄生虫细胞的药物，其中考虑到这些细胞的适应。所达成的理解还将有助于将这些生物体发展为可能是生产化学品的理想生物工厂，包括需要从极端环境中获得的能源燃料。

Most living organisms are rather robust vis-à-vis a great number of changes in their environment. Mammals and birds achieve much of this robustness by having different organs and cells process different tasks in a highly coordinated fashion. Unicellular microrganisms may derive much of their robustness from intracellular networks. This is somewhat understood for two of the three domains of Life, but not yet at all for the most recently discovered life form, i.e. Archaea. Yet it is these Archaea that are subject to the most extreme challenges from the environment as some of them live in hyperthermal vents or in salt and are subject to sudden and extreme variations. Only recently, the science has been developed that analyzes how intracellular networks generate important properties that are absent from the components of those networks. In much the same way groups of people can be much more effective than the same number of people all operating individually.) This 'Systems Biology' will here be deployed and tuned to analyze mechanisms of robustness in one of the most extreme Archae that is presently amenable to such studies, i.e. Sulfolobus solfataricus. The research program brings together much of the most appropriate expertise from four European countries. It will focus in the robustness of perhaps the most vital and massive biochemical functions of all organisms, i.e. their main carbon and energy metabolism. It wll look at perhaps the most pervasive perturbations cells of microorganisms experience, i.e. variations in temperature. A computer 'replica' of central carbon and energy metabolism will be made. Both in well-coordinated experiments and in the computer replica the various mechanisms through which the organisms achieve robustness will be identified and quantified. The extent, to which the mechanisms can stand in for each other should one of them be eliminated, will be determined. This new aspect of Systems Biology will suggest new ways to design drugs against parasytic cells, where adaptation of those cells is taken into account. The understanding achieved will also help develop these organisms as perhaps ideal biological factories for chemicals, including energy-fuel that needs to be harvested from extreme environments.