Metabolism: How a eukaryote adapted to life without respiration.

A new study finds that Schizosaccharomyces japonicus, a eukaryote that lost the ability to respire, modified its central carbon metabolism to maintain efficient ATP production, cofactor regeneration, and amino-acid production. This remarkable metabolic flexibility opens new avenues towards applications.
Competing Interests: Declaration of interests K.J.V is a co-inventor on a patent application (WO2020157112A1) that identifies a gene as a major regulator of the Crabtree effect in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Specifically, the gene regulates the balance between fermentation and respiration. Whereas the topic is related to the submitted manuscript, there is no direct interaction between the two (i.e. nothing written in this piece influences or even directly relates to the patent).
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