Carbon metabolism is the most basic aspect of life. This map presents an overall view of central carbon metabolism, where the number of carbons is shown for each compound denoted by a circle, excluding a cofactor (CoA, CoM, THF, or THMPT) that is replaced by an asterisk. The map contains carbon utilization pathways of glycolysis (map00010), pentose phosphate pathway (map00030), and citrate cycle (map00020), and six known carbon fixation pathways (map00710 and map00720) as well as some pathways of methane metabolism (map00680). The six carbon fixation pathways are: (1) reductive pentose phosphate cycle (Calvin cycle) in plants and cyanobacteria that perform oxygenic photosynthesis, (2) reductive citrate cycle in photosynthetic green sulfur bacteria and some chemolithoautotrophs, (3) 3-hydroxypropionate bi-cycle in photosynthetic green nonsulfur bacteria, two variants of 4-hydroxybutyrate pathways in Crenarchaeota called (4) hydroxypropionate-hydroxybutyrate cycle and (5) dicarboxylate-hydroxybutyrate cycle, and (6) reductive acetyl-CoA pathway in methanogenic bacteria.
