Imagine you want to get rich by genetically engineering tobacco plants to produc

Question

Imagine you want to get rich by genetically engineering tobacco plants to produce acai berry juice. To do so, you insert the genes for each of the enzymes in the hypothetical acai juice synthesis pathway, the first step of which is conversion of glucose to fructose. Your challenge is, if the concentration of acai berry juice gets too high, it is toxic to the cell. Furthermore, it would be nice to save glucose as the starting material for other processes. What would be the best way to make as much juice as possible without killing the cell, and that as soon as this much juice is made, glucose is preserved for other cellular processes? Shown below is the hypothetical pathway. I_1, I_2, and I_3 are the intermediates in the pathway. Enzymes 1-5 (E1-E5) catalyze each reaction in the order in which they appear. Allosteric inhibition of Enzyme 1 by fructose Allosteric inhibition of Enzyme 1 by glucose Allosteric inhibition of Enzyme 1 by Acai juice Allosteric inhibition of Enzyme 2 by Acai juice

Explanation / Answer

The answer will be

-> Allosteric inhibition of Enzyme 1 by Acai Juice

Explanation: The above answer satisfies both the requirements as explained below

1.Prevents toxicity of Acai Juice: If Acai Juice inhibits Enzyme 1, build up of toxic concentrations of Acai Juice is prevented as soon as decent levels of Acai Juice is produced. This ensures that although the tobacco plant produces the Acai juice, it doesn't produce it to the levels which is toxic to the plant.

This can be achieved if Acai Juice inhibits Enzyme 2 also but we chose the option 'Acai juice inhibits as explained in point 2 below

2.Preserves glucose for cellular processes: If Acai Juice inhibits Enzyme 1, then additional glucose does not enter the pathway to be converted to intermediates. This Gluocose is therefore preserved for other cellular processes. This is not possible if Acai juice inhibits Enzyme 2 because then Glucose required for other cellular processes will get converted to Fructose !!

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