The Central Carbon Metabolic Flux Database (CeCaFDB, available at http://www.cecafdb.org) is a manually curated, multipurpose and open-access database for the documentation, visualization and comparative analysis of the quantitative flux results of central carbon metabolism among microbes and animal cells. It encompasses records for more than 500 flux distributions among 36 organisms and includes information regarding the genotype, culture medium, growth conditions and other specific information gathered from hundreds of journal articles. In addition to its comprehensive literature-derived data, the CeCaFDB supports a common text search function among the data and interactive visualization of the curated flux distributions with compartmentation information based on the Cytoscape Web API, which facilitates data interpretation. The CeCaFDB offers four modules to calculate a similarity score or to perform an alignment between the flux distributions. One of the modules was built using an inter programming algorithm for flux distribution alignment that was specifically designed for this study. Based on these modules, the CeCaFDB also supports an extensive flux distribution comparison function among the curated data. The CeCaFDB is strenuously designed to address the broad demands of biochemists, metabolic engineers, systems biologists and members of the -omics community.
The central carbon metabolic system is the upstream energy source for microbial fermentation. In addition, it is a master switch for increasing the production of metabolites and an important
Central carbon metabolism is the main source of energy required by organisms
and it provides precursors for other in vivo metabolic processes. The flux
flowing through the pathways involved in central carbon metabolism
characterizes its biological function and genetic readout between species or
environments. In recent years, using a 13C tracer technique, researchers have
measured the flux of central carbon metabolism in Corynebacterium glutamicum
under a variety of nutritional and environmental changes or genetic
modifications. However, there is no integrated and comparative analysis of
these measured flux values. In this study, the flux values of central carbon
metabolism in Corynebacterium glutamicum that were obtained in other recent
studies were consolidated. A preliminary examination of the distribution
characteristics of flux values in each metabolic pathway was conducted and
the regression relationship between different fluxes was investigated. The
principal components of the flux vector were further extracted and aggregated
based on the components, and the general features of flux distribution of
central carbon metabolism as well as the influence of environmental and
genetic factors on the flux distribution were determined. This study provides
a foundation for further investigation into the flux distribution and
regulation characteristics of central carbon metabolism.
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