Sulphur Assimilation Pathways in Model Eukaryotes a Review

Sulphur is an essential nutritional requirement for all living organisms. Sulphate assimilation pathway has been considered quite significant as it is the source of reduced Sulphur for various cellular processes and for the synthesis of glutathione. Different organisms assimilate Sulphur through different pathways and mechanisms. Sulphur assimilation is largely confined to plants like Arabidopsis and microorganisms particularly E.coli since higher eukaryotes are unable to assimilate inorganic sulfur and therefore must rely on ingested methionine and cysteine. Microbes can reduce sulfate, thiosulfate or elemental sulfur while the higher plants use sulfate for amino acid synthesis. With the advent of Comparative Genomics, several genome wide studies are in pipeline to facilitate the understanding of metabolic pathways in different organisms. In this study, the Sulphur assimilation pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been reviewed and also some aspects of the pathways of Arabidopsias thaliana and humans to highlight the differences and similarities between these pathways have been discussed.