To what extent has genetic manipulation of the Calvin cycle forced the reappraisal of our understanding of the control of metabolic pathways in plants. What do studies of transgenic plants reveal about the integration of metabolism?

... To what extent has genetic manipulation of the Calvin cycle forced the reappraisal of our understanding of the control of metabolic pathways in plants. What do studies of transgenic plants reveal about the integration of metabolism? Within the past decade advances in genetics and molecular biology has facilitated brand new ways of looking at metabolic processes. Far from the traditional reductionalist approaches of the previous years, we are able undertake a more holistic approach towards understanding metabolic pathways and networks. The most important advance has been a move away from inferred models based on in vitro characteristics of enzymes to real-time studies in vivo of enzymes at work. One of the best understood metabolic networks (and also among the best funded in plants) is the primary pathway for Carbon fixation, the Calvin cycle. In this essay I shall describe how the regulation of metabolic pathways was originally approached, how the use

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