Development and application of genome-scale metabolic networks for the re-design of a cell

Abstract

In this study, overall scheme of the reconstruction and validation of the genome-scale metabolic networks, and its use in metabolic engineering is proposed. Previous experimental studies have indicated that the enhanced production of commodity chemicals in metabolically engineered strains can be achieved by a variety of strategies based on genetic alterations and environmental changes. In the current study, such strategies are applied for production of commodity chemicals and verified by resorting to a in silico analysis which provides more information on the flux distribution of the engineered strains. This process is initiated by constructing a genome-scale metabolic networks, and then followed by quantifying metabolic fluxes. The resultant flux distributions render it possible to investigate the effect of various perturbations, i.e., genetic perturbation or environemental perturbation. Finally, targets (genes or compounds) for commodity chemicals were identified by analyzing the internal flux patterns. Possibly, the production of chemicals can be more enhanced by appropriately manipulating such essential fluxes identified. Thus, the genome-scale metabolic networks and the in silico analysis can provide a new insight into the metabolic engineering strategy for achieving higher productivity.