From the elephant to the butyric acid bacterium, it is all the same
Keywords:
Biochemical unity, metabolism, molecular biologyAbstract
In 1926, the Dutch microbiologists Albert Jan Kluyver and Cornelis Bernardus van Niel proposed that all living organisms share the same fundamental biochemical principles. At a time when a hierarchical view of nature still prevailed, one that placed “higher” animals above microorganisms, their statement represented a profound conceptual breakthrough, showing that metabolism, energy, and biosynthesis follow universal rules. A century later, this biochemical unity underpins modern biology and biotechnology.
References
Kluyver, A. J., & Donker, H. J. L. (1926). Die Einheit in der Biochemie. Chemie der Zelle und Gewebe, 13, 134–190.
Friedmann, H. C. (2004). From “butyribacterium” to “E. coli”: an essay on unity in biochemistry. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 47(1):47-66. https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2004.0007
Schada von Borzyskowski, L., Bernhardsgrütter, I., & Erb, T. J. (2020). Biochemical unity revisited: Microbial central carbon metabolism holds new discoveries, multi-tasking pathways, and redundancies with a reason. Biological Chemistry, 401(12), 1429–1441. https://doi.org/10.1515/hsz-2020-0214
Jüttner, M., & Ferreira-Cerca, S. (2022). A comparative perspective on ribosome biogenesis: Unity and diversity across the tree of life. Methods in Molecular Biology, 2533, 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2501-9_1
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