The many roles of glutamate in metabolism

The amino acid glutamate is a major metabolic hub in many organisms and as such is involved in diverse processes in addition to its role in protein synthesis. Nitrogen assimilation, nucleotide, amino acid, and cofactor biosynthesis, as well as secondary natural product formation all utilize glutamate in some manner. Glutamate also plays a role in the catabolism of certain amines. Understanding glutamate's role in these various processes can aid in genome mining for novel metabolic pathways or the engineering of pathways for bioremediation or chemical production of valuable compounds.