Hypotheses on life activities of microorganisms(original)

Zhang Xingyuan, The three basic hypotheses on life activities of microorganisms (The three hypotheses on fermentation science)

The energy be able to promote the activities of life directly (to do cell-work within cell), can be called metabolic energy. Microbial cells rely on self-agencies for energy transformation to change the energy sector, from chemical energy or light energy into metabolic energy，which can be directly used to support the activities of their own lives.

Based on the integration in the levels of molecules and the coordination in the levels of co-factors (co-enzymes), the metabolic pathway and transfer systems constitute the metabolic networks throughout inside and outside microbial cells. Metabolic network is a kind of scale-free networks of cell self-regulation, which as a whole to bear the microbial cell material metabolism and energy metabolism.

Microbial cell is an imbalanced open system far from a balance state, is a cell economy system which come into being on the basis of natural selection. Cell economy system is the security system for microbial cell survival, to provide continuous protection for cell in the sectors of adaptability, economy, and metabolism.

The three basic hypotheses of microbial life activities (the hypothesis of metabolic energy supporting, the metabolic networks hypothesis and the hypothesis of cell economy), as well as the reasoning on the premise they made, constitute a complete ideological system. The first hypothesis reflects the premise of the living activities of microorganism (to supply energy continuously); the second hypothesis embodies the contents of microbial life (energy and material conversion relations); the third hypothesis to reveal the law of microbial life activities (to provide the basis for co-operation between human being and micro-organisms). The three basic hypotheses, from three different angles to analyze the same question, the living activities of microorganism, embody the three are interlinked and coordinated. The first hypothesis, from the perspective of bioenergetics and metabolic energy, we firmly believe that microbial cells are convertor of metabolic energy; the second hypothesis, from the perspective of biochemistry and metabolism, we firmly believe that microbial cells are biological and chemical reactors and biological materials processor; the third hypothesis, from the perspective of bioinformatics, we firmly believe that microbial cells are bio-informatics encoder, information sensor and information processor.

Energy metabolism rely on metabolic networks to achieve sustainability, metabolic networks need metabolic energy to run to support metabolism, energy metabolism and material metabolism overlap each other, and in restraint of cell economic laws. Currents of flowing metabolites in metabolic networks rely on supporting of metabolic energy, and are restricted to laws of cell economy; but the studies on metabolic energy sustainment and cell economy, must with the aid of the work-carrier, metabolic networks.

③ Nature dialectics in fermentation engineering:

Modern industrial fermentation is going to establish in the base of academic research of the three basic hypotheses. The hypothesis of metabolic energy supporting revealed the driving force behind the industrial fermentation. In the hypothesis of metabolic networks, metabolic pathways (enzymes) and related carriers (proteins) have been organized as a whole, and known as the metabolic networks (material metabolism network), in order to have a good grasp of microbial physiology and material metabolism in the macro level, and to provide the basis of analysis for the actual operation sites in the design of industrial fermentation from raw materials to the target products. The concept of cell economy have been put forward, it provides a theoretical basis of that we handle the relationship between the unity of opposites of the subjective wishes upon industrial fermentation and the objective law of microbial life activities.

④Cross-disciplines and infiltrate-disciplines:

The establishment of the new concept of fermentation science is based on the combination, infiltration, fusion, and support each other, in the field of disciplines of chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, cytology and the field of disciplines of  physics, physical chemistry, chemical engineering principles, electrotechnics, biology, economics, philosophy and dialectics of nature.

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