Choke point analysis of the metabolic pathways of Acinetobacter baylyi: A genomics approach to assess potential drug targets

Shailza Singh*, Priyanka Joshi and Balu Ananda Chopade

Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, University of Pune, Pune-411007, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: shailza_iitd@yahoo.com. Tel: +91-20-25691333. Fax: +91-20-25690087

Accepted 14 September, 2009

   Abstract

Numerous species of the genus Acinetobacter have been known to cause various nosocomial infections. An insight into the pathogenesis of Acinetobacter baylyi reveals that it is a potent organism in causing nosocomial infections. In this study, choke point analysis of the entire metabolic network of A. baylyi is performed to assess potential drug targets. Potential drug targets are proposed based on the analysis of the top 8 choke points in the bacterial network. A comparative study between the reported top 8 bacterial choke points and the human metabolic network was performed. Further biological inferences were made on results obtained by performing a homology search against the human genome. The study was successful in listing out of the potential drug targets from these pathways which may be useful for the discovery of broad-spectrum drugs.

Key words: Choke points, Acinetobacter baylyi, human genome, drug discovery, metabolic pathway, opportunistic pathogen.