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Walsh LH, Coakley M, Walsh AM, O'Toole PW, Cotter PD. Bioinformatic approaches for studying the microbiome of fermented food. Crit Rev Microbiol 2023; 49:693-725. [PMID: 36287644 DOI: 10.1080/1040841x.2022.2132850] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Revised: 08/11/2022] [Accepted: 09/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
High-throughput DNA sequencing-based approaches continue to revolutionise our understanding of microbial ecosystems, including those associated with fermented foods. Metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches are state-of-the-art biological profiling methods and are employed to investigate a wide variety of characteristics of microbial communities, such as taxonomic membership, gene content and the range and level at which these genes are expressed. Individual groups and consortia of researchers are utilising these approaches to produce increasingly large and complex datasets, representing vast populations of microorganisms. There is a corresponding requirement for the development and application of appropriate bioinformatic tools and pipelines to interpret this data. This review critically analyses the tools and pipelines that have been used or that could be applied to the analysis of metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data from fermented foods. In addition, we critically analyse a number of studies of fermented foods in which these tools have previously been applied, to highlight the insights that these approaches can provide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liam H Walsh
- Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, Ireland
| | - Mairéad Coakley
- Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
| | - Aaron M Walsh
- Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
| | - Paul W O'Toole
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, Ireland
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Ireland
| | - Paul D Cotter
- Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Ireland
- VistaMilk SFI Research Centre, Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
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52
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Bay ÖF, Hayes KS, Schwartz JM, Grencis RK, Roberts IS. A genome-scale metabolic model of parasitic whipworm. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6937. [PMID: 37907472 PMCID: PMC10618284 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42552-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 10/13/2023] [Indexed: 11/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Genome-scale metabolic models are widely used to enhance our understanding of metabolic features of organisms, host-pathogen interactions and to identify therapeutics for diseases. Here we present iTMU798, the genome-scale metabolic model of the mouse whipworm Trichuris muris. The model demonstrates the metabolic features of T. muris and allows the prediction of metabolic steps essential for its survival. Specifically, that Thioredoxin Reductase (TrxR) enzyme is essential, a prediction we validate in vitro with the drug auranofin. Furthermore, our observation that the T. muris genome lacks gsr-1 encoding Glutathione Reductase (GR) but has GR activity that can be inhibited by auranofin indicates a mechanism for the reduction of glutathione by the TrxR enzyme in T. muris. In addition, iTMU798 predicts seven essential amino acids that cannot be synthesised by T. muris, a prediction we validate for the amino acid tryptophan. Overall, iTMU798 is as a powerful tool to study not only the T. muris metabolism but also other Trichuris spp. in understanding host parasite interactions and the rationale design of new intervention strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ömer F Bay
- Division of Infection, Immunity and Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
- Bioinformatics, Abdullah Gül University, Kayseri, Türkiye
- The Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
| | - Kelly S Hayes
- Division of Infection, Immunity and Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
- The Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
- The Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
| | - Jean-Marc Schwartz
- Division of Evolution, Infection and Genomics, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
| | - Richard K Grencis
- Division of Infection, Immunity and Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- The Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- The Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
| | - Ian S Roberts
- Division of Infection, Immunity and Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- The Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
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53
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Bäuerle F, Döbel GO, Camus L, Heilbronner S, Dräger A. Genome-scale metabolic models consistently predict in vitro characteristics of Corynebacterium striatum. FRONTIERS IN BIOINFORMATICS 2023; 3:1214074. [PMID: 37936955 PMCID: PMC10626998 DOI: 10.3389/fbinf.2023.1214074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 10/02/2023] [Indexed: 11/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction: Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) are organism-specific knowledge bases which can be used to unravel pathogenicity or improve production of specific metabolites in biotechnology applications. However, the validity of predictions for bacterial proliferation in in vitro settings is hardly investigated. Methods: The present work combines in silico and in vitro approaches to create and curate strain-specific genome-scale metabolic models of Corynebacterium striatum. Results: We introduce five newly created strain-specific genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) of high quality, satisfying all contemporary standards and requirements. All these models have been benchmarked using the community standard test suite Metabolic Model Testing (MEMOTE) and were validated by laboratory experiments. For the curation of those models, the software infrastructure refineGEMs was developed to work on these models in parallel and to comply with the quality standards for GEMs. The model predictions were confirmed by experimental data and a new comparison metric based on the doubling time was developed to quantify bacterial growth. Discussion: Future modeling projects can rely on the proposed software, which is independent of specific environmental conditions. The validation approach based on the growth rate calculation is now accessible and closely aligned with biological questions. The curated models are freely available via BioModels and a GitHub repository and can be used. The open-source software refineGEMs is available from https://github.com/draeger-lab/refinegems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Famke Bäuerle
- Computational Systems Biology of Infections and Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens, Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI), Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine Tübingen (IMIT), Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Computer Science, Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Gwendolyn O. Döbel
- Computational Systems Biology of Infections and Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens, Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI), Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Computer Science, Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Laura Camus
- Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine Tübingen (IMIT), Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence “Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections (CMFI)”, Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Simon Heilbronner
- Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine Tübingen (IMIT), Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence “Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections (CMFI)”, Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Faculty of Biology, Microbiology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Andreas Dräger
- Computational Systems Biology of Infections and Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens, Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI), Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Computer Science, Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence “Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections (CMFI)”, Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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54
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Casini I, McCubbin T, Esquivel-Elizondo S, Luque GG, Evseeva D, Fink C, Beblawy S, Youngblut ND, Aristilde L, Huson DH, Dräger A, Ley RE, Marcellin E, Angenent LT, Molitor B. An integrated systems biology approach reveals differences in formate metabolism in the genus Methanothermobacter. iScience 2023; 26:108016. [PMID: 37854702 PMCID: PMC10579436 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2023] [Revised: 08/29/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 10/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Methanogenesis allows methanogenic archaea to generate cellular energy for their growth while producing methane. Thermophilic hydrogenotrophic species of the genus Methanothermobacter have been recognized as robust biocatalysts for a circular carbon economy and are already applied in power-to-gas technology with biomethanation, which is a platform to store renewable energy and utilize captured carbon dioxide. Here, we generated curated genome-scale metabolic reconstructions for three Methanothermobacter strains and investigated differences in the growth performance of these same strains in chemostat bioreactor experiments with hydrogen and carbon dioxide or formate as substrates. Using an integrated systems biology approach, we identified differences in formate anabolism between the strains and revealed that formate anabolism influences the diversion of carbon between biomass and methane. This finding, together with the omics datasets and the metabolic models we generated, can be implemented for biotechnological applications of Methanothermobacter in power-to-gas technology, and as a perspective, for value-added chemical production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabella Casini
- Environmental Biotechnology Group, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstraße 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Tim McCubbin
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
- Queensland Metabolomics and Proteomics (Q-MAP), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology (COESB), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Sofia Esquivel-Elizondo
- Department of Microbiome Science, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Max-Planck-Ring 5, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Guillermo G. Luque
- Department of Microbiome Science, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Max-Planck-Ring 5, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Daria Evseeva
- Department of Computer Science, University of Tübingen, Sand 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI), University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Christian Fink
- Environmental Biotechnology Group, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstraße 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Sebastian Beblawy
- Environmental Biotechnology Group, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstraße 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Nicholas D. Youngblut
- Department of Microbiome Science, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Max-Planck-Ring 5, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Ludmilla Aristilde
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| | - Daniel H. Huson
- Department of Computer Science, University of Tübingen, Sand 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI), University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence – Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Andreas Dräger
- Department of Computer Science, University of Tübingen, Sand 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI), University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence – Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Ruth E. Ley
- Department of Microbiome Science, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Max-Planck-Ring 5, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence – Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Esteban Marcellin
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
- Queensland Metabolomics and Proteomics (Q-MAP), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology (COESB), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Largus T. Angenent
- Environmental Biotechnology Group, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstraße 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence – Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
- AG Angenent, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Max-Planck-Ring 5, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 10D, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation CO2 Research Center (CORC), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 10C, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Bastian Molitor
- Environmental Biotechnology Group, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstraße 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence – Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
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Vezina B, Watts SC, Hawkey J, Cooper HB, Judd LM, Jenney AWJ, Monk JM, Holt KE, Wyres KL. Bactabolize is a tool for high-throughput generation of bacterial strain-specific metabolic models. eLife 2023; 12:RP87406. [PMID: 37815531 PMCID: PMC10564454 DOI: 10.7554/elife.87406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Metabolic capacity can vary substantially within a bacterial species, leading to ecological niche separation, as well as differences in virulence and antimicrobial susceptibility. Genome-scale metabolic models are useful tools for studying the metabolic potential of individuals, and with the rapid expansion of genomic sequencing there is a wealth of data that can be leveraged for comparative analysis. However, there exist few tools to construct strain-specific metabolic models at scale. Here, we describe Bactabolize, a reference-based tool which rapidly produces strain-specific metabolic models and growth phenotype predictions. We describe a pan reference model for the priority antimicrobial-resistant pathogen, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and a quality control framework for using draft genome assemblies as input for Bactabolize. The Bactabolize-derived model for K. pneumoniae reference strain KPPR1 performed comparatively or better than currently available automated approaches CarveMe and gapseq across 507 substrate and 2317 knockout mutant growth predictions. Novel draft genomes passing our systematically defined quality control criteria resulted in models with a high degree of completeness (≥99% genes and reactions captured compared to models derived from matched complete genomes) and high accuracy (mean 0.97, n=10). We anticipate the tools and framework described herein will facilitate large-scale metabolic modelling analyses that broaden our understanding of diversity within bacterial species and inform novel control strategies for priority pathogens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ben Vezina
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Central Clinical School, Monash UniversityMelbourneAustralia
| | - Stephen C Watts
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Central Clinical School, Monash UniversityMelbourneAustralia
| | - Jane Hawkey
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Central Clinical School, Monash UniversityMelbourneAustralia
| | - Helena B Cooper
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Central Clinical School, Monash UniversityMelbourneAustralia
| | - Louise M Judd
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Central Clinical School, Monash UniversityMelbourneAustralia
| | | | - Jonathan M Monk
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San DiegoSan DiegoUnited States
| | - Kathryn E Holt
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Central Clinical School, Monash UniversityMelbourneAustralia
- Department of Infection Biology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical MedicineLondonUnited Kingdom
| | - Kelly L Wyres
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Central Clinical School, Monash UniversityMelbourneAustralia
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56
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Heinken A, Hulshof TO, Nap B, Martinelli F, Basile A, O'Brolchain A, O’Sullivan NF, Gallagher C, Magee E, McDonagh F, Lalor I, Bergin M, Evans P, Daly R, Farrell R, Delaney RM, Hill S, McAuliffe SR, Kilgannon T, Fleming RM, Thinnes CC, Thiele I. APOLLO: A genome-scale metabolic reconstruction resource of 247,092 diverse human microbes spanning multiple continents, age groups, and body sites. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.10.02.560573. [PMID: 37873072 PMCID: PMC10592896 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.02.560573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2023]
Abstract
Computational modelling of microbiome metabolism has proved instrumental to catalyse our understanding of diet-host-microbiome-disease interactions through the interrogation of mechanistic, strain- and molecule-resolved metabolic models. We present APOLLO, a resource of 247,092 human microbial genome-scale metabolic reconstructions spanning 19 phyla and accounting for microbial genomes from 34 countries, all age groups, and five body sites. We explored the metabolic potential of the reconstructed strains and developed a machine learning classifier able to predict with high accuracy the taxonomic strain assignments. We also built 14,451 sample-specific microbial community models, which could be stratified by body site, age, and disease states. Finally, we predicted faecal metabolites enriched or depleted in gut microbiomes of people with Crohn's disease, Parkinson disease, and undernourished children. APOLLO is compatible with the human whole-body models, and thus, provide unprecedented opportunities for systems-level modelling of personalised host-microbiome co-metabolism. APOLLO will be freely available under https://www.vmh.life/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Almut Heinken
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Inserm UMRS 1256 NGERE, University of Lorraine, Nancy, France
| | - Timothy Otto Hulshof
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | - Bram Nap
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | - Filippo Martinelli
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | - Arianna Basile
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Ian Lalor
- University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Cyrille C. Thinnes
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | - Ines Thiele
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Division of Microbiology, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- APC Microbiome Ireland, Cork, Ireland
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57
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Neal M, Thiruppathy D, Zengler K. Genome-scale metabolic modeling of the human gut bacterium Bacteroides fragilis strain 638R. PLoS Comput Biol 2023; 19:e1011594. [PMID: 37903176 PMCID: PMC10635569 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011594] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2023] [Revised: 11/09/2023] [Accepted: 10/11/2023] [Indexed: 11/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Bacteroides fragilis is a universal member of the dominant commensal gut phylum Bacteroidetes. Its fermentation products and abundance have been linked to obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and other disorders through its effects on host metabolic regulation and the immune system. As of yet, there has been no curated systems-level characterization of B. fragilis' metabolism that provides a comprehensive analysis of the link between human diet and B. fragilis' metabolic products. To address this, we developed a genome-scale metabolic model of B. fragilis strain 638R. The model iMN674 contains 1,634 reactions, 1,362 metabolites, three compartments, and reflects the strain's ability to utilize 142 metabolites. Predictions made with this model include its growth rate and efficiency on these substrates, the amounts of each fermentation product it produces under different conditions, and gene essentiality for each biomass component. The model highlights and resolves gaps in knowledge of B. fragilis' carbohydrate metabolism and its corresponding transport proteins. This high quality model provides the basis for rational prediction of B. fragilis' metabolic interactions with its environment and its host.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxwell Neal
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, California, United States of America
| | - Deepan Thiruppathy
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, California, United States of America
| | - Karsten Zengler
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, California, United States of America
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, California, United States of America
- Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California, San Diego, California, United States of America
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58
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Kugler A, Stensjö K. Optimal energy and redox metabolism in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. NPJ Syst Biol Appl 2023; 9:47. [PMID: 37739963 PMCID: PMC10516873 DOI: 10.1038/s41540-023-00307-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/01/2023] [Indexed: 09/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding energy and redox homeostasis and carbon partitioning is crucial for systems metabolic engineering of cell factories. Carbon metabolism alone cannot achieve maximal accumulation of metabolites in production hosts, since an efficient production of target molecules requires energy and redox balance, in addition to carbon flow. The interplay between cofactor regeneration and heterologous production in photosynthetic microorganisms is not fully explored. To investigate the optimality of energy and redox metabolism, while overproducing alkenes-isobutene, isoprene, ethylene and 1-undecene, in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, we applied stoichiometric metabolic modelling. Our network-wide analysis indicates that the rate of NAD(P)H regeneration, rather than of ATP, controls ATP/NADPH ratio, and thereby bioproduction. The simulation also implies that energy and redox balance is interconnected with carbon and nitrogen metabolism. Furthermore, we show that an auxiliary pathway, composed of serine, one-carbon and glycine metabolism, supports cellular redox homeostasis and ATP cycling. The study revealed non-intuitive metabolic pathways required to enhance alkene production, which are mainly driven by a few key reactions carrying a high flux. We envision that the presented comparative in-silico metabolic analysis will guide the rational design of Synechocystis as a photobiological production platform of target chemicals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amit Kugler
- Microbial Chemistry, Department of Chemistry-Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Box 523, SE-751 20, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Karin Stensjö
- Microbial Chemistry, Department of Chemistry-Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Box 523, SE-751 20, Uppsala, Sweden.
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59
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Moore RA, Azua-Bustos A, González-Silva C, Carr CE. Unveiling metabolic pathways involved in the extreme desiccation tolerance of an Atacama cyanobacterium. Sci Rep 2023; 13:15767. [PMID: 37737281 PMCID: PMC10516996 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-41879-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2023] [Accepted: 09/01/2023] [Indexed: 09/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Gloeocapsopsis dulcis strain AAB1 is an extremely xerotolerant cyanobacterium isolated from the Atacama Desert (i.e., the driest and oldest desert on Earth) that holds astrobiological significance due to its ability to biosynthesize compatible solutes at ultra-low water activities. We sequenced and assembled the G. dulcis genome de novo using a combination of long- and short-read sequencing, which resulted in high-quality consensus sequences of the chromosome and two plasmids. We leveraged the G. dulcis genome to generate a genome-scale metabolic model (iGd895) to simulate growth in silico. iGd895 represents, to our knowledge, the first genome-scale metabolic reconstruction developed for an extremely xerotolerant cyanobacterium. The model's predictive capability was assessed by comparing the in silico growth rate with in vitro growth rates of G. dulcis, in addition to the synthesis of trehalose. iGd895 allowed us to explore simulations of key metabolic processes such as essential pathways for water-stress tolerance, and significant alterations to reaction flux distribution and metabolic network reorganization resulting from water limitation. Our study provides insights into the potential metabolic strategies employed by G. dulcis, emphasizing the crucial roles of compatible solutes, metabolic water, energy conservation, and the precise regulation of reaction rates in their adaptation to water stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel A Moore
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 275 Ferst Dr. NW, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
| | - Armando Azua-Bustos
- Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Madrid, Spain
- Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | | | - Christopher E Carr
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 275 Ferst Dr. NW, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
- Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
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60
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Bessell B, Loecker J, Zhao Z, Aghamiri SS, Mohanty S, Amin R, Helikar T, Puniya BL. COMO: a pipeline for multi-omics data integration in metabolic modeling and drug discovery. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:bbad387. [PMID: 37930022 PMCID: PMC10627799 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2023] [Revised: 09/04/2023] [Accepted: 10/05/2023] [Indexed: 11/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Identifying potential drug targets using metabolic modeling requires integrating multiple modeling methods and heterogeneous biological datasets, which can be challenging without efficient tools. We developed Constraint-based Optimization of Metabolic Objectives (COMO), a user-friendly pipeline that integrates multi-omics data processing, context-specific metabolic model development, simulations, drug databases and disease data to aid drug discovery. COMO can be installed as a Docker Image or with Conda and includes intuitive instructions within a Jupyter Lab environment. It provides a comprehensive solution for the integration of bulk and single-cell RNA-seq, microarrays and proteomics outputs to develop context-specific metabolic models. Using public databases, open-source solutions for model construction and a streamlined approach for predicting repurposable drugs, COMO enables researchers to investigate low-cost alternatives and novel disease treatments. As a case study, we used the pipeline to construct metabolic models of B cells, which simulate and analyze them to predict metabolic drug targets for rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, respectively. COMO can be used to construct models for any cell or tissue type and identify drugs for any human disease where metabolic inhibition is relevant. The pipeline has the potential to improve the health of the global community cost-effectively by providing high-confidence targets to pursue in preclinical and clinical studies. The source code of the COMO pipeline is available at https://github.com/HelikarLab/COMO. The Docker image can be pulled at https://github.com/HelikarLab/COMO/pkgs/container/como.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandt Bessell
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE, USA
| | - Josh Loecker
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE, USA
| | - Zhongyuan Zhao
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE, USA
| | | | | | - Rada Amin
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE, USA
| | - Tomáš Helikar
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE, USA
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Gelbach PE, Finley SD. Genome-scale modeling predicts metabolic differences between macrophage subtypes in colorectal cancer. iScience 2023; 26:107569. [PMID: 37664588 PMCID: PMC10474475 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107569] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Revised: 05/24/2023] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) shows high incidence and mortality, partly due to the tumor microenvironment (TME), which is viewed as an active promoter of disease progression. Macrophages are among the most abundant cells in the TME. These immune cells are generally categorized as M1, with inflammatory and anti-cancer properties, or M2, which promote tumor proliferation and survival. Although the M1/M2 subclassification scheme is strongly influenced by metabolism, the metabolic divergence between the subtypes remains poorly understood. Therefore, we generated a suite of computational models that characterize the M1- and M2-specific metabolic states. Our models show key differences between the M1 and M2 metabolic networks and capabilities. We leverage the models to identify metabolic perturbations that cause the metabolic state of M2 macrophages to more closely resemble M1 cells. Overall, this work increases understanding of macrophage metabolism in CRC and elucidates strategies to promote the metabolic state of anti-tumor macrophages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick E. Gelbach
- Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Stacey D. Finley
- Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
- Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
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62
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Caivano A, van Winden W, Dragone G, Mussatto SI. Enzyme-constrained metabolic model and in silico metabolic engineering of Clostridium ljungdahlii for the development of sustainable production processes. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2023; 21:4634-4646. [PMID: 37790242 PMCID: PMC10543971 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2023.09.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Revised: 09/13/2023] [Accepted: 09/13/2023] [Indexed: 10/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Constraint-based genome-scale models (GEMs) of microorganisms provide a powerful tool for predicting and analyzing microbial phenotypes as well as for understanding how these are affected by genetic and environmental perturbations. Recently, MATLAB and Python-based tools have been developed to incorporate enzymatic constraints into GEMs. These constraints enhance phenotype predictions by accounting for the enzyme cost of catalyzed model´s reactions, thereby reducing the space of possible metabolic flux distributions. In this study, enzymatic constraints were added to an existing GEM of Clostridium ljungdahlii, a model acetogenic bacterium, by including its enzyme turnover numbers (kcats) and molecular masses, using the Python-based AutoPACMEN approach. When compared to the metabolic model iHN637, the enzyme cost-constrained model (ec_iHN637) obtained in our study showed an improved predictive ability of growth rate and product profile. The model ec_iHN637 was then employed to perform in silico metabolic engineering of C. ljungdahlii, by using the OptKnock computational framework to identify knockouts to enhance the production of desired fermentation products. The in silico metabolic engineering was geared towards increasing the production of fermentation products by C. ljungdahlii, with a focus on the utilization of synthesis gas and CO2. This resulted in different engineering strategies for overproduction of valuable metabolites under different feeding conditions, without redundant knockouts for different products. Importantly, the results of the in silico engineering results indicated that the mixotrophic growth of C. ljungdahlii is a promising approach to coupling improved cell growth and acetate and ethanol productivity with net CO2 fixation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Caivano
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Søltofts Plads, Building 223, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Wouter van Winden
- DSM-Firmenich Science & Research - Bioprocess Innovation, Rosalind Franklin Biotechnology Center, Alexander Fleminglaan 1, 2613 AX, Delft, the Netherlands
| | - Giuliano Dragone
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Søltofts Plads, Building 223, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Solange I. Mussatto
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Søltofts Plads, Building 223, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
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63
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Fleming RMT, Haraldsdottir HS, Minh LH, Vuong PT, Hankemeier T, Thiele I. Cardinality optimization in constraint-based modelling: application to human metabolism. Bioinformatics 2023; 39:btad450. [PMID: 37697651 PMCID: PMC10495685 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btad450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2022] [Revised: 05/12/2023] [Indexed: 09/13/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Several applications in constraint-based modelling can be mathematically formulated as cardinality optimization problems involving the minimization or maximization of the number of nonzeros in a vector. These problems include testing for stoichiometric consistency, testing for flux consistency, testing for thermodynamic flux consistency, computing sparse solutions to flux balance analysis problems and computing the minimum number of constraints to relax to render an infeasible flux balance analysis problem feasible. Such cardinality optimization problems are computationally complex, with no known polynomial time algorithms capable of returning an exact and globally optimal solution. RESULTS By approximating the zero-norm with nonconvex continuous functions, we reformulate a set of cardinality optimization problems in constraint-based modelling into a difference of convex functions. We implemented and numerically tested novel algorithms that approximately solve the reformulated problems using a sequence of convex programs. We applied these algorithms to various biochemical networks and demonstrate that our algorithms match or outperform existing related approaches. In particular, we illustrate the efficiency and practical utility of our algorithms for cardinality optimization problems that arise when extracting a model ready for thermodynamic flux balance analysis given a human metabolic reconstruction. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION Open source scripts to reproduce the results are here https://github.com/opencobra/COBRA.papers/2023_cardOpt with general purpose functions integrated within the COnstraint-Based Reconstruction and Analysis toolbox: https://github.com/opencobra/cobratoolbox.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ronan M T Fleming
- Metabolomics and Analytics Center, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 76, Leiden 2333 CC, The Netherlands
- Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg, 6 avenue du Swing, Belvaux L-4362, Luxembourg
- School of Medicine, National University of Ireland, University Rd, Galway H91 TK33, Ireland
| | - Hulda S Haraldsdottir
- Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg, 6 avenue du Swing, Belvaux L-4362, Luxembourg
| | - Le Hoai Minh
- Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg, 6 avenue du Swing, Belvaux L-4362, Luxembourg
| | - Phan Tu Vuong
- Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg, 6 avenue du Swing, Belvaux L-4362, Luxembourg
- Mathematical Sciences School, University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
| | - Thomas Hankemeier
- Metabolomics and Analytics Center, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 76, Leiden 2333 CC, The Netherlands
| | - Ines Thiele
- School of Medicine, National University of Ireland, University Rd, Galway H91 TK33, Ireland
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64
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Cunha E, Silva M, Chaves I, Demirci H, Lagoa DR, Lima D, Rocha M, Rocha I, Dias O. The first multi-tissue genome-scale metabolic model of a woody plant highlights suberin biosynthesis pathways in Quercus suber. PLoS Comput Biol 2023; 19:e1011499. [PMID: 37729340 PMCID: PMC10545120 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2023] [Revised: 10/02/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Over the last decade, genome-scale metabolic models have been increasingly used to study plant metabolic behaviour at the tissue and multi-tissue level under different environmental conditions. Quercus suber, also known as the cork oak tree, is one of the most important forest communities of the Mediterranean/Iberian region. In this work, we present the genome-scale metabolic model of the Q. suber (iEC7871). The metabolic model comprises 7871 genes, 6231 reactions, and 6481 metabolites across eight compartments. Transcriptomics data was integrated into the model to obtain tissue-specific models for the leaf, inner bark, and phellogen, with specific biomass compositions. The tissue-specific models were merged into a diel multi-tissue metabolic model to predict interactions among the three tissues at the light and dark phases. The metabolic models were also used to analyse the pathways associated with the synthesis of suberin monomers, namely the acyl-lipids, phenylpropanoids, isoprenoids, and flavonoids production. The models developed in this work provide a systematic overview of the metabolism of Q. suber, including its secondary metabolism pathways and cork formation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emanuel Cunha
- Centre of Biological Engineering, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Miguel Silva
- Centre of Biological Engineering, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Inês Chaves
- Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Avenida da República, Quinta do Marquês, Oeiras, Portugal
- iBET, Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica, Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Huseyin Demirci
- Centre of Biological Engineering, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal
- SnT/University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
| | | | - Diogo Lima
- Centre of Biological Engineering, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Miguel Rocha
- Centre of Biological Engineering, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal
- LABBELS–Associate Laboratory, Braga, Guimarães, Portugal
| | - Isabel Rocha
- Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Avenida da República, Quinta do Marquês, Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Oscar Dias
- Centre of Biological Engineering, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal
- LABBELS–Associate Laboratory, Braga, Guimarães, Portugal
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65
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Saadat NP, van Aalst M, Brand A, Ebenhöh O, Tissier A, Matuszyńska AB. Shifts in carbon partitioning by photosynthetic activity increase terpenoid synthesis in glandular trichomes. THE PLANT JOURNAL : FOR CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2023; 115:1716-1728. [PMID: 37337787 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.16352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 06/21/2023]
Abstract
Several commercially important secondary metabolites are produced and accumulated in high amounts by glandular trichomes, giving the prospect of using them as metabolic cell factories. Due to extremely high metabolic fluxes through glandular trichomes, previous research focused on how such flows are achieved. The question regarding their bioenergetics became even more interesting with the discovery of photosynthetic activity in some glandular trichomes. Despite recent advances, how primary metabolism contributes to the high metabolic fluxes in glandular trichomes is still not fully elucidated. Using computational methods and available multi-omics data, we first developed a quantitative framework to investigate the possible role of photosynthetic energy supply in terpenoid production and next tested experimentally the simulation-driven hypothesis. With this work, we provide the first reconstruction of specialised metabolism in Type-VI photosynthetic glandular trichomes of Solanum lycopersicum. Our model predicted that increasing light intensities results in a shift of carbon partitioning from catabolic to anabolic reactions driven by the energy availability of the cell. Moreover, we show the benefit of shifting between isoprenoid pathways under different light regimes, leading to a production of different classes of terpenes. Our computational predictions were confirmed in vivo, demonstrating a significant increase in production of monoterpenoids while the sesquiterpenes remained unchanged under higher light intensities. The outcomes of this research provide quantitative measures to assess the beneficial role of chloroplast in glandular trichomes for enhanced production of secondary metabolites and can guide the design of new experiments that aim at modulating terpenoid production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nima P Saadat
- Institute of Theoretical and Quantitative Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Marvin van Aalst
- Institute of Theoretical and Quantitative Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Alejandro Brand
- Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Weinberg 3, 06120, Halle, Germany
| | - Oliver Ebenhöh
- Institute of Theoretical and Quantitative Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Alain Tissier
- Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Anna B Matuszyńska
- Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Computational Life Science, Department of Biology, RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074, Aachen, Germany
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66
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Heinken A, Hertel J, Acharya G, Ravcheev DA, Nyga M, Okpala OE, Hogan M, Magnúsdóttir S, Martinelli F, Nap B, Preciat G, Edirisinghe JN, Henry CS, Fleming RMT, Thiele I. Genome-scale metabolic reconstruction of 7,302 human microorganisms for personalized medicine. Nat Biotechnol 2023; 41:1320-1331. [PMID: 36658342 PMCID: PMC10497413 DOI: 10.1038/s41587-022-01628-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 42.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Accepted: 11/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
The human microbiome influences the efficacy and safety of a wide variety of commonly prescribed drugs. Designing precision medicine approaches that incorporate microbial metabolism would require strain- and molecule-resolved, scalable computational modeling. Here, we extend our previous resource of genome-scale metabolic reconstructions of human gut microorganisms with a greatly expanded version. AGORA2 (assembly of gut organisms through reconstruction and analysis, version 2) accounts for 7,302 strains, includes strain-resolved drug degradation and biotransformation capabilities for 98 drugs, and was extensively curated based on comparative genomics and literature searches. The microbial reconstructions performed very well against three independently assembled experimental datasets with an accuracy of 0.72 to 0.84, surpassing other reconstruction resources and predicted known microbial drug transformations with an accuracy of 0.81. We demonstrate that AGORA2 enables personalized, strain-resolved modeling by predicting the drug conversion potential of the gut microbiomes from 616 patients with colorectal cancer and controls, which greatly varied between individuals and correlated with age, sex, body mass index and disease stages. AGORA2 serves as a knowledge base for the human microbiome and paves the way to personalized, predictive analysis of host-microbiome metabolic interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Almut Heinken
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- INSERM UMRS 1256, Nutrition, Genetics, and Environmental Risk Exposure (NGERE), University of Lorraine, Nancy, France
| | - Johannes Hertel
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Geeta Acharya
- Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg, Dudelange, Luxembourg
| | - Dmitry A Ravcheev
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | | | | | - Marcus Hogan
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | - Stefanía Magnúsdóttir
- Center for Molecular Medicine, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Filippo Martinelli
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | - Bram Nap
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | - German Preciat
- Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Janaka N Edirisinghe
- Computation Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Mathematics and Computer Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA
| | - Christopher S Henry
- Mathematics and Computer Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA
| | - Ronan M T Fleming
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
- Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Ines Thiele
- School of Medicine, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland.
- Ryan Institute, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland.
- Division of Microbiology, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland.
- APC Microbiome Ireland, Cork, Ireland.
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67
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Wu Y, Yuan Q, Yang Y, Liu D, Yang S, Ma H. Construction and application of high-quality genome-scale metabolic model of Zymomonas mobilis to guide rational design of microbial cell factories. Synth Syst Biotechnol 2023; 8:498-508. [PMID: 37554249 PMCID: PMC10404502 DOI: 10.1016/j.synbio.2023.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 07/04/2023] [Accepted: 07/04/2023] [Indexed: 08/10/2023] Open
Abstract
High-quality genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) could play critical roles on rational design of microbial cell factories in the classical Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle of synthetic biology studies. Despite of the constant establishment and update of GEMs for model microorganisms such as Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, high-quality GEMs for non-model industrial microorganisms are still scarce. Zymomonas mobilis subsp. mobilis ZM4 is a non-model ethanologenic microorganism with many excellent industrial characteristics that has been developing as microbial cell factories for biochemical production. Although five GEMs of Z. mobilis have been constructed, these models are either generating ATP incorrectly, or lacking information of plasmid genes, or not providing standard format file. In this study, a high-quality GEM iZM516 of Z. mobilis ZM4 was constructed. The information from the improved genome annotation, literature, datasets of Biolog Phenotype Microarray studies, and recently updated Gene-Protein-Reaction information was combined for the curation of iZM516. Finally, 516 genes, 1389 reactions, 1437 metabolites, and 3 cell compartments are included in iZM516, which also had the highest MEMOTE score of 91% among all published GEMs of Z. mobilis. Cell growth was then predicted by iZM516, which had 79.4% agreement with the experimental results of the substrate utilization. In addition, the potential endogenous succinate synthesis pathway of Z. mobilis ZM4 was proposed through simulation and analysis using iZM516. Furthermore, metabolic engineering strategies to produce succinate and 1,4-butanediol (1,4-BDO) were designed and then simulated under anaerobic condition using iZM516. The results indicated that 1.68 mol/mol succinate and 1.07 mol/mol 1,4-BDO can be achieved through combinational metabolic engineering strategies, which was comparable to that of the model species E. coli. Our study thus not only established a high-quality GEM iZM516 to help understand and design microbial cell factories for economic biochemical production using Z. mobilis as the chassis, but also provided guidance on building accurate GEMs for other non-model industrial microorganisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yalun Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Qianqian Yuan
- Biodesign Center, Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, 300308, China
| | - Yongfu Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
- Hubei Key Laboratory of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
- Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Engineering Lab, School of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Defei Liu
- Biodesign Center, Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, 300308, China
| | - Shihui Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Hongwu Ma
- Biodesign Center, Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, 300308, China
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Nègre D, Larhlimi A, Bertrand S. Reconciliation and evolution of Penicillium rubens genome-scale metabolic networks-What about specialised metabolism? PLoS One 2023; 18:e0289757. [PMID: 37647283 PMCID: PMC10468094 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2023] [Accepted: 07/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023] Open
Abstract
In recent years, genome sequencing of filamentous fungi has revealed a high proportion of specialised metabolites with growing pharmaceutical interest. However, detecting such metabolites through in silico genome analysis does not necessarily guarantee their expression under laboratory conditions. However, one plausible strategy for enabling their production lies in modifying the growth conditions. Devising a comprehensive experimental design testing in different culture environments is time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, using in silico modelling as a preliminary step, such as Genome-Scale Metabolic Network (GSMN), represents a promising approach to predicting and understanding the observed specialised metabolite production in a given organism. To address these questions, we reconstructed a new high-quality GSMN for the Penicillium rubens Wisconsin 54-1255 strain, a commonly used model organism. Our reconstruction, iPrub22, adheres to current convention standards and quality criteria, incorporating updated functional annotations, orthology searches with different GSMN templates, data from previous reconstructions, and manual curation steps targeting primary and specialised metabolites. With a MEMOTE score of 74% and a metabolic coverage of 45%, iPrub22 includes 5,192 unique metabolites interconnected by 5,919 reactions, of which 5,033 are supported by at least one genomic sequence. Of the metabolites present in iPrub22, 13% are categorised as belonging to specialised metabolism. While our high-quality GSMN provides a valuable resource for investigating known phenotypes expressed in P. rubens, our analysis identifies bottlenecks related, in particular, to the definition of what is a specialised metabolite, which requires consensus within the scientific community. It also points out the necessity of accessible, standardised and exhaustive databases of specialised metabolites. These questions must be addressed to fully unlock the potential of natural product production in P. rubens and other filamentous fungi. Our work represents a foundational step towards the objective of rationalising the production of natural products through GSMN modelling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Delphine Nègre
- Nantes Université, Institut des Substances et Organismes de la Mer, ISOMer, Nantes, France
- Nantes Université, École Centrale Nantes, CNRS, Nantes, France
| | | | - Samuel Bertrand
- Nantes Université, Institut des Substances et Organismes de la Mer, ISOMer, Nantes, France
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69
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Jenior ML, Leslie JL, Kolling GL, Archbald-Pannone L, Powers DA, Petri WA, Papin JA. Systems-ecology designed bacterial consortium protects from severe Clostridioides difficile infection. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.08.08.552483. [PMID: 37609255 PMCID: PMC10441344 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.08.552483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/24/2023]
Abstract
Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) is an emerging therapy that has had remarkable success in treatment and prevention of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI). FMT has recently been associated with adverse outcomes such as inadvertent transfer of antimicrobial resistance, necessitating development of more targeted bacteriotherapies. To address this challenge, we developed a novel systems biology pipeline to identify candidate probiotic strains that would be predicted to interrupt C. difficile pathogenesis. Utilizing metagenomic characterization of human FMT donor samples, we identified those metabolic pathways most associated with successful FMTs and reconstructed the metabolism of encoding species to simulate interactions with C. difficile . This analysis resulted in predictions of high levels of cross-feeding for amino acids in species most associated with FMT success. Guided by these in silico models, we assembled consortia of bacteria with increased amino acid cross-feeding which were then validated in vitro . We subsequently tested the consortia in a murine model of CDI, demonstrating total protection from severe CDI through decreased toxin levels, recovered gut microbiota, and increased intestinal eosinophils. These results support the novel framework that amino acid cross-feeding is likely a critical mechanism in the initial resolution of CDI by FMT. Importantly, we conclude that our predictive platform based on predicted and testable metabolic interactions between the microbiota and C. difficile led to a rationally designed biotherapeutic framework that may be extended to other enteric infections.
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Murali S, Ibrahim M, Rajendran H, Shagun S, Masakapalli SK, Raman K, Srivastava S. Genome-scale metabolic model led engineering of Nothapodytes nimmoniana plant cells for high camptothecin production. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1207218. [PMID: 37600193 PMCID: PMC10433906 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1207218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2023] [Accepted: 07/04/2023] [Indexed: 08/22/2023]
Abstract
Camptothecin (CPT) is a vital monoterpene indole alkaloid used in anti-cancer therapeutics. It is primarily derived from Camptotheca acuminata and Nothapodytes nimmoniana plants that are indigenous to Southeast Asia. Plants have intricate metabolic networks and use them to produce secondary metabolites such as CPT, which is a prerequisite for rational metabolic engineering design to optimize their production. By reconstructing metabolic models, we can predict plant metabolic behavior, facilitating the selection of suitable approaches and saving time, cost, and energy, over traditional hit and trial experimental approaches. In this study, we reconstructed a genome-scale metabolic model for N. nimmoniana (NothaGEM iSM1809) and curated it using experimentally obtained biochemical data. We also used in silico tools to identify and rank suitable enzyme targets for overexpression and knockout to maximize camptothecin production. The predicted over-expression targets encompass enzymes involved in the camptothecin biosynthesis pathway, including strictosidine synthase and geraniol 10-hydroxylase, as well as targets related to plant metabolism, such as amino acid biosynthesis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. The top-ranked knockout targets included reactions responsible for the formation of folates and serine, as well as the conversion of acetyl CoA and oxaloacetate to malate and citrate. One of the top-ranked overexpression targets, strictosidine synthase, was chosen to generate metabolically engineered cell lines of N. nimmoniana using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. The transformed cell line showed a 5-fold increase in camptothecin production, with a yield of up to 5 µg g-1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarayu Murali
- Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
| | - Maziya Ibrahim
- Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
- Initiative for Biological Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
- Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
| | - Hemalatha Rajendran
- Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
| | - Shagun Shagun
- School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India
| | - Shyam Kumar Masakapalli
- School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India
| | - Karthik Raman
- Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
- Initiative for Biological Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
- Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
| | - Smita Srivastava
- Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
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Scott WT, Benito-Vaquerizo S, Zimmermann J, Bajić D, Heinken A, Suarez-Diez M, Schaap PJ. A structured evaluation of genome-scale constraint-based modeling tools for microbial consortia. PLoS Comput Biol 2023; 19:e1011363. [PMID: 37578975 PMCID: PMC10449394 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2023] [Revised: 08/24/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Harnessing the power of microbial consortia is integral to a diverse range of sectors, from healthcare to biotechnology to environmental remediation. To fully realize this potential, it is critical to understand the mechanisms behind the interactions that structure microbial consortia and determine their functions. Constraint-based reconstruction and analysis (COBRA) approaches, employing genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs), have emerged as the state-of-the-art tool to simulate the behavior of microbial communities from their constituent genomes. In the last decade, many tools have been developed that use COBRA approaches to simulate multi-species consortia, under either steady-state, dynamic, or spatiotemporally varying scenarios. Yet, these tools have not been systematically evaluated regarding their software quality, most suitable application, and predictive power. Hence, it is uncertain which tools users should apply to their system and what are the most urgent directions that developers should take in the future to improve existing capacities. This study conducted a systematic evaluation of COBRA-based tools for microbial communities using datasets from two-member communities as test cases. First, we performed a qualitative assessment in which we evaluated 24 published tools based on a list of FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) features essential for software quality. Next, we quantitatively tested the predictions in a subset of 14 of these tools against experimental data from three different case studies: a) syngas fermentation by C. autoethanogenum and C. kluyveri for the static tools, b) glucose/xylose fermentation with engineered E. coli and S. cerevisiae for the dynamic tools, and c) a Petri dish of E. coli and S. enterica for tools incorporating spatiotemporal variation. Our results show varying performance levels of the best qualitatively assessed tools when examining the different categories of tools. The differences in the mathematical formulation of the approaches and their relation to the results were also discussed. Ultimately, we provide recommendations for refining future GEM microbial modeling tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- William T. Scott
- Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
- UNLOCK, Wageningen University & Research and Delft University of Technology, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Sara Benito-Vaquerizo
- Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Johannes Zimmermann
- Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Research Group Medical Systems Biology, Kiel, Germany
| | - Djordje Bajić
- Department of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
| | - Almut Heinken
- Inserm U1256 Laboratoire nGERE, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France
| | - Maria Suarez-Diez
- Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Peter J. Schaap
- Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
- UNLOCK, Wageningen University & Research and Delft University of Technology, Wageningen, the Netherlands
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72
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Xu Y, Zhu L, Chen S, Wu H, Li R, Li J, Yuan J, Wen T, Xue C, Shen Q. Risk assessment and dissemination mechanism of antibiotic resistance genes in compost. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2023; 178:108126. [PMID: 37562342 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.108126] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2023] [Revised: 07/26/2023] [Accepted: 07/30/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023]
Abstract
In recent years, the excessive of antibiotics in livestock and poultry husbandry, stemming from extensive industry experience, has resulted in the accumulation of residual antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in livestock manure. Composting, as a crucial approach for the utilization of manure resources, has the potential to reduce the levels of antibiotics and ARGs in manure, although complete elimination is challenging. Previous studies have primarily focused on the diversity and abundance of ARGs in compost or have solely examined the correlation between ARGs and their carriers, potentially leading to a misjudgment of the actual risk associated with ARGs in compost. To address this gap, this study investigated the transfer potential of ARGs in compost and their co-occurrence with opportunistic pathogenic bacteria by extensively analyzing metagenomic sequencing data of compost worldwide. The results demonstrated that the potential risk of ARGs in compost was significantly lower than in manure, suggesting that composting effectively reduces the risk of ARGs. Further analysis showed that the microbes shifted their life history strategy in manure and compost due to antibiotic pressure and formed metabolic interactions dominated by antibiotic-resistant microbes, increasing ARG dissemination frequency. Therefore, husbandry practice without antibiotic addition was recommended to control ARG evolution, dissemination, and abatement both at the source and throughout processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yifei Xu
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
| | - Lin Zhu
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
| | - Shanguo Chen
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
| | - Haiyan Wu
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
| | - Ruiqi Li
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
| | - Jing Li
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
| | - Jun Yuan
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
| | - Tao Wen
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
| | - Chao Xue
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; Key Laboratory of Green Intelligent Fertilizer Innovation, MARD, Sinong Bio-organic Fertilizer Institute, Nanjing 210000, China.
| | - Qirong Shen
- Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
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73
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Tatka LT, Smith LP, Hellerstein JL, Sauro HM. Adapting modeling and simulation credibility standards to computational systems biology. J Transl Med 2023; 21:501. [PMID: 37496031 PMCID: PMC10369698 DOI: 10.1186/s12967-023-04290-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Computational models are increasingly used in high-impact decision making in science, engineering, and medicine. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) uses computational models to perform complex experiments that are otherwise prohibitively expensive or require a microgravity environment. Similarly, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) have began accepting models and simulations as forms of evidence for pharmaceutical and medical device approval. It is crucial that computational models meet a standard of credibility when using them in high-stakes decision making. For this reason, institutes including NASA, the FDA, and the EMA have developed standards to promote and assess the credibility of computational models and simulations. However, due to the breadth of models these institutes assess, these credibility standards are mostly qualitative and avoid making specific recommendations. On the other hand, modeling and simulation in systems biology is a narrower domain and several standards are already in place. As systems biology models increase in complexity and influence, the development of a credibility assessment system is crucial. Here we review existing standards in systems biology, credibility standards in other science, engineering, and medical fields, and propose the development of a credibility standard for systems biology models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lillian T Tatka
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
| | - Lucian P Smith
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | | | - Herbert M Sauro
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
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74
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Sen P, Orešič M. Integrating Omics Data in Genome-Scale Metabolic Modeling: A Methodological Perspective for Precision Medicine. Metabolites 2023; 13:855. [PMID: 37512562 PMCID: PMC10383060 DOI: 10.3390/metabo13070855] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Revised: 07/11/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent advancements in omics technologies have generated a wealth of biological data. Integrating these data within mathematical models is essential to fully leverage their potential. Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) provide a robust framework for studying complex biological systems. GEMs have significantly contributed to our understanding of human metabolism, including the intrinsic relationship between the gut microbiome and the host metabolism. In this review, we highlight the contributions of GEMs and discuss the critical challenges that must be overcome to ensure their reproducibility and enhance their prediction accuracy, particularly in the context of precision medicine. We also explore the role of machine learning in addressing these challenges within GEMs. The integration of omics data with GEMs has the potential to lead to new insights, and to advance our understanding of molecular mechanisms in human health and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Partho Sen
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, FI-20520 Turku, Finland
- School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, 702 81 Örebro, Sweden
| | - Matej Orešič
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, FI-20520 Turku, Finland
- School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, 702 81 Örebro, Sweden
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75
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Kim SK, Lee M, Lee YQ, Lee HJ, Rho M, Kim Y, Seo JY, Youn SH, Hwang SJ, Kang NG, Lee CH, Park SY, Lee DY. Genome-scale metabolic modeling and in silico analysis of opportunistic skin pathogen Cutibacterium acnes. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2023; 13:1099314. [PMID: 37520435 PMCID: PMC10374032 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1099314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 08/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Cutibacterium acnes, one of the most abundant skin microbes found in the sebaceous gland, is known to contribute to the development of acne vulgaris when its strains become imbalanced. The current limitations of acne treatment using antibiotics have caused an urgent need to develop a systematic strategy for selectively targeting C. acnes, which can be achieved by characterizing their cellular behaviors under various skin environments. To this end, we developed a genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) of virulent C. acnes, iCA843, based on the genome information of a relevant strain from ribotype 5 to comprehensively understand the pathogenic traits of C. acnes in the skin environment. We validated the model qualitatively by demonstrating its accuracy prediction of propionate and acetate production patterns, which were consistent with experimental observations. Additionally, we identified unique biosynthetic pathways for short-chain fatty acids in C. acnes compared to other GEMs of acne-inducing skin pathogens. By conducting constraint-based flux analysis under endogenous carbon sources in human skin, we discovered that the Wood-Werkman cycle is highly activated under acnes-associated skin condition for the regeneration of NAD, resulting in enhanced propionate production. Finally, we proposed potential anti-C. acnes targets by using the model-guided systematic framework based on gene essentiality analysis and protein sequence similarity search with abundant skin microbiome taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Su-Kyung Kim
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea
| | - Minouk Lee
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea
| | - Yi Qing Lee
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyun Jun Lee
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Mina Rho
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Department of Computer Science, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Yunkwan Kim
- R&D Center, LG Household & Healthcare (LG H&H), Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Jung Yeon Seo
- R&D Center, LG Household & Healthcare (LG H&H), Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Sung Hun Youn
- R&D Center, LG Household & Healthcare (LG H&H), Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Seung Jin Hwang
- R&D Center, LG Household & Healthcare (LG H&H), Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Nae Gyu Kang
- R&D Center, LG Household & Healthcare (LG H&H), Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Choong-Hwan Lee
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Konkuk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Seo-Young Park
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea
| | - Dong-Yup Lee
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea
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76
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Schäfer M, Pacheco AR, Künzler R, Bortfeld-Miller M, Field CM, Vayena E, Hatzimanikatis V, Vorholt JA. Metabolic interaction models recapitulate leaf microbiota ecology. Science 2023; 381:eadf5121. [PMID: 37410834 DOI: 10.1126/science.adf5121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2022] [Accepted: 05/18/2023] [Indexed: 07/08/2023]
Abstract
Resource allocation affects the structure of microbiomes, including those associated with living hosts. Understanding the degree to which this dependency determines interspecies interactions may advance efforts to control host-microbiome relationships. We combined synthetic community experiments with computational models to predict interaction outcomes between plant-associated bacteria. We mapped the metabolic capabilities of 224 leaf isolates from Arabidopsis thaliana by assessing the growth of each strain on 45 environmentally relevant carbon sources in vitro. We used these data to build curated genome-scale metabolic models for all strains, which we combined to simulate >17,500 interactions. The models recapitulated outcomes observed in planta with >89% accuracy, highlighting the role of carbon utilization and the contributions of niche partitioning and cross-feeding in the assembly of leaf microbiomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Schäfer
- Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Alan R Pacheco
- Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Rahel Künzler
- Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | | | - Evangelia Vayena
- Laboratory of Computational Systems Biotechnology, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Vassily Hatzimanikatis
- Laboratory of Computational Systems Biotechnology, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
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77
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Vailionis JL, Zhao W, Zhang K, Rodionov DA, Lipscomb GL, Tanwee TNN, O'Quinn HC, Bing RG, Kelly RM, Adams MWW, Zhang Y. Optimizing Strategies for Bio-Based Ethanol Production Using Genome-Scale Metabolic Modeling of the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon, Pyrococcus furiosus. Appl Environ Microbiol 2023; 89:e0056323. [PMID: 37289085 PMCID: PMC10304669 DOI: 10.1128/aem.00563-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2023] [Accepted: 05/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/09/2023] Open
Abstract
A genome-scale metabolic model, encompassing a total of 623 genes, 727 reactions, and 865 metabolites, was developed for Pyrococcus furiosus, an archaeon that grows optimally at 100°C by carbohydrate and peptide fermentation. The model uses subsystem-based genome annotation, along with extensive manual curation of 237 gene-reaction associations including those involved in central carbon metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and energy metabolism. The redox and energy balance of P. furiosus was investigated through random sampling of flux distributions in the model during growth on disaccharides. The core energy balance of the model was shown to depend on high acetate production and the coupling of a sodium-dependent ATP synthase and membrane-bound hydrogenase, which generates a sodium gradient in a ferredoxin-dependent manner, aligning with existing understanding of P. furiosus metabolism. The model was utilized to inform genetic engineering designs that favor the production of ethanol over acetate by implementing an NADPH and CO-dependent energy economy. The P. furiosus model is a powerful tool for understanding the relationship between generation of end products and redox/energy balance at a systems-level that will aid in the design of optimal engineering strategies for production of bio-based chemicals and fuels. IMPORTANCE The bio-based production of organic chemicals provides a sustainable alternative to fossil-based production in the face of today's climate challenges. In this work, we present a genome-scale metabolic reconstruction of Pyrococcus furiosus, a well-established platform organism that has been engineered to produce a variety of chemicals and fuels. The metabolic model was used to design optimal engineering strategies to produce ethanol. The redox and energy balance of P. furiosus was examined in detail, which provided useful insights that will guide future engineering designs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason L. Vailionis
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA
| | - Weishu Zhao
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA
| | - Ke Zhang
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA
| | - Dmitry A. Rodionov
- Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, California, USA
| | - Gina L. Lipscomb
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
| | - Tania N. N. Tanwee
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
| | - Hailey C. O'Quinn
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
| | - Ryan G. Bing
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Robert M. Kelly
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Michael W. W. Adams
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
| | - Ying Zhang
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA
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78
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Wang X, Mohsin A, Sun Y, Li C, Zhuang Y, Wang G. From Spatial-Temporal Multiscale Modeling to Application: Bridging the Valley of Death in Industrial Biotechnology. Bioengineering (Basel) 2023; 10:744. [PMID: 37370675 DOI: 10.3390/bioengineering10060744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Revised: 06/13/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The Valley of Death confronts industrial biotechnology with a significant challenge to the commercialization of products. Fortunately, with the integration of computation, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the industrial biotechnology accelerates to cross the Valley of Death. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) has spurred advanced development of intelligent biomanufacturing, which has evolved the industrial structures in line with the worldwide trend. To achieve this, intelligent biomanufacturing can be structured into three main parts that comprise digitalization, modeling and intellectualization, with modeling forming a crucial link between the other two components. This paper provides an overview of mechanistic models, data-driven models and their applications in bioprocess development. We provide a detailed elaboration of the hybrid model and its applications in bioprocess engineering, including strain design, process control and optimization, as well as bioreactor scale-up. Finally, the challenges and opportunities of biomanufacturing towards Industry 4.0 are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xueting Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), Shanghai 200237, China
| | - Ali Mohsin
- State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), Shanghai 200237, China
| | - Yifei Sun
- Key Laboratory of Smart Manufacturing in Energy Chemical Process, Ministry of Education, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), Shanghai 200237, China
| | - Chao Li
- State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), Shanghai 200237, China
| | - Yingping Zhuang
- State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), Shanghai 200237, China
| | - Guan Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), Shanghai 200237, China
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79
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Roell G, Schenk C, Anthony WE, Carr RR, Ponukumati A, Kim J, Akhmatskaya E, Foston M, Dantas G, Moon TS, Tang YJ, García Martín H. A High-Quality Genome-Scale Model for Rhodococcus opacus Metabolism. ACS Synth Biol 2023; 12:1632-1644. [PMID: 37186551 PMCID: PMC10278598 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.2c00618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Rhodococcus opacus is a bacterium that has a high tolerance to aromatic compounds and can produce significant amounts of triacylglycerol (TAG). Here, we present iGR1773, the first genome-scale model (GSM) of R. opacus PD630 metabolism based on its genomic sequence and associated data. The model includes 1773 genes, 3025 reactions, and 1956 metabolites, was developed in a reproducible manner using CarveMe, and was evaluated through Metabolic Model tests (MEMOTE). We combine the model with two Constraint-Based Reconstruction and Analysis (COBRA) methods that use transcriptomics data to predict growth rates and fluxes: E-Flux2 and SPOT (Simplified Pearson Correlation with Transcriptomic data). Growth rates are best predicted by E-Flux2. Flux profiles are more accurately predicted by E-Flux2 than flux balance analysis (FBA) and parsimonious FBA (pFBA), when compared to 44 central carbon fluxes measured by 13C-Metabolic Flux Analysis (13C-MFA). Under glucose-fed conditions, E-Flux2 presents an R2 value of 0.54, while predictions based on pFBA had an inferior R2 of 0.28. We attribute this improved performance to the extra activity information provided by the transcriptomics data. For phenol-fed metabolism, in which the substrate first enters the TCA cycle, E-Flux2's flux predictions display a high R2 of 0.96 while pFBA showed an R2 of 0.93. We also show that glucose metabolism and phenol metabolism function with similar relative ATP maintenance costs. These findings demonstrate that iGR1773 can help the metabolic engineering community predict aromatic substrate utilization patterns and perform computational strain design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Garrett
W. Roell
- Department
of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Christina Schenk
- BCAM
- Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Bilbao 48009, Spain
- Biological
Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence
Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Winston E. Anthony
- The Edison
Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, United States
- Department
of Pathology and Immunology, Washington
University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63108, United States
| | - Rhiannon R. Carr
- Department
of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Aditya Ponukumati
- Department
of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Joonhoon Kim
- DOE
Agile BioFoundry, Emeryville, California 94608, United States
- DOE
Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California 94608, United States
| | - Elena Akhmatskaya
- BCAM
- Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Bilbao 48009, Spain
- Biological
Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence
Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- IKERBASQUE,
Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao 48009, Spain
| | - Marcus Foston
- Department
of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Gautam Dantas
- The Edison
Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, United States
- Department
of Pathology and Immunology, Washington
University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63108, United States
- Department
of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University
in St. Louis, St Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
- Department
of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University
in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63108, United States
- Department
of Pediatrics, Washington University School
of Medicine in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri 63110, United States
| | - Tae Seok Moon
- Department
of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Yinjie J. Tang
- Department
of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Hector García Martín
- BCAM
- Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Bilbao 48009, Spain
- DOE
Agile BioFoundry, Emeryville, California 94608, United States
- Biological
Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence
Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- DOE
Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California 94608, United States
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80
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Rothman DL, Moore PB, Shulman RG. The impact of metabolism on the adaptation of organisms to environmental change. Front Cell Dev Biol 2023; 11:1197226. [PMID: 37377740 PMCID: PMC10291235 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2023.1197226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Since Jacob and Monod's discovery of the lac operon ∼1960, the explanations offered for most metabolic adaptations have been genetic. The focus has been on the adaptive changes in gene expression that occur, which are often referred to as "metabolic reprogramming." The contributions metabolism makes to adaptation have been largely ignored. Here we point out that metabolic adaptations, including the associated changes in gene expression, are highly dependent on the metabolic state of an organism prior to the environmental change to which it is adapting, and on the plasticity of that state. In support of this hypothesis, we examine the paradigmatic example of a genetically driven adaptation, the adaptation of E. coli to growth on lactose, and the paradigmatic example of a metabolic driven adaptation, the Crabtree effect in yeast. Using a framework based on metabolic control analysis, we have reevaluated what is known about both adaptations, and conclude that knowledge of the metabolic properties of these organisms prior to environmental change is critical for understanding not only how they survive long enough to adapt, but also how the ensuing changes in gene expression occur, and their phenotypes post-adaptation. It would be useful if future explanations for metabolic adaptations acknowledged the contributions made to them by metabolism, and described the complex interplay between metabolic systems and genetic systems that make these adaptations possible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Douglas L. Rothman
- Departments of Radiology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
- Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
- Yale Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Peter B. Moore
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
- Department of Chemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Robert G. Shulman
- Yale Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
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81
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Jenior ML, Glass EM, Papin JA. Reconstructor: a COBRApy compatible tool for automated genome-scale metabolic network reconstruction with parsimonious flux-based gap-filling. Bioinformatics 2023; 39:btad367. [PMID: 37279743 PMCID: PMC10275916 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btad367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2022] [Revised: 05/22/2023] [Accepted: 06/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/08/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Genome-scale metabolic network reconstructions (GENREs) are valuable for understanding cellular metabolism in silico. Several tools exist for automatic GENRE generation. However, these tools frequently (i) do not readily integrate with some of the widely-used suites of packaged methods available for network analysis, (ii) lack effective network curation tools, (iii) are not sufficiently user-friendly, and (iv) often produce low-quality draft reconstructions. RESULTS Here, we present Reconstructor, a user-friendly, COBRApy-compatible tool that produces high-quality draft reconstructions with reaction and metabolite naming conventions that are consistent with the ModelSEED biochemistry database and includes a gap-filling technique based on the principles of parsimony. Reconstructor can generate SBML GENREs from three input types: annotated protein .fasta sequences (Type 1 input), a BLASTp output (Type 2), or an existing SBML GENRE that can be further gap-filled (Type 3). While Reconstructor can be used to create GENREs of any species, we demonstrate the utility of Reconstructor with bacterial reconstructions. We demonstrate how Reconstructor readily generates high-quality GENRES that capture strain, species, and higher taxonomic differences in functional metabolism of bacteria and are useful for further biological discovery. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The Reconstructor Python package is freely available for download. Complete installation and usage instructions and benchmarking data are available at http://github.com/emmamglass/reconstructor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew L Jenior
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
| | - Emma M Glass
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
| | - Jason A Papin
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
- Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
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82
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Marin de Mas I, Herand H, Carrasco J, Nielsen LK, Johansson PI. A Protocol for the Automatic Construction of Highly Curated Genome-Scale Models of Human Metabolism. Bioengineering (Basel) 2023; 10:bioengineering10050576. [PMID: 37237646 DOI: 10.3390/bioengineering10050576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2023] [Revised: 04/24/2023] [Accepted: 05/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) have emerged as a tool to understand human metabolism from a holistic perspective with high relevance in the study of many diseases and in the metabolic engineering of human cell lines. GEM building relies on either automated processes that lack manual refinement and result in inaccurate models or manual curation, which is a time-consuming process that limits the continuous update of reliable GEMs. Here, we present a novel algorithm-aided protocol that overcomes these limitations and facilitates the continuous updating of highly curated GEMs. The algorithm enables the automatic curation and/or expansion of existing GEMs or generates a highly curated metabolic network based on current information retrieved from multiple databases in real time. This tool was applied to the latest reconstruction of human metabolism (Human1), generating a series of the human GEMs that improve and expand the reference model and generating the most extensive and comprehensive general reconstruction of human metabolism to date. The tool presented here goes beyond the current state of the art and paves the way for the automatic reconstruction of a highly curated, up-to-date GEM with high potential in computational biology as well as in multiple fields of biological science where metabolism is relevant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Igor Marin de Mas
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Danish Technical University, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
- CAG Center for Endotheliomics, Copenhagen University Hospital, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 1165 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Helena Herand
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Danish Technical University, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
- CAG Center for Endotheliomics, Copenhagen University Hospital, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jorge Carrasco
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Danish Technical University, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Lars K Nielsen
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Danish Technical University, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark
- CAG Center for Endotheliomics, Copenhagen University Hospital, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
| | - Pär I Johansson
- CAG Center for Endotheliomics, Copenhagen University Hospital, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 1165 Copenhagen, Denmark
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83
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Bannerman BP, Oarga A, Júlvez J. Mycobacterial metabolic model development for drug target identification. GIGABYTE 2023; 2023:gigabyte80. [PMID: 37153490 PMCID: PMC10154535 DOI: 10.46471/gigabyte.80] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2022] [Accepted: 04/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance is increasing at an alarming rate, and three related mycobacteria are sources of widespread infections in humans. According to the World Health Organization, Mycobacterium leprae, which causes leprosy, is still endemic in tropical countries; Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the second leading infectious killer worldwide after COVID-19; and Mycobacteroides abscessus, a group of non-tuberculous mycobacteria, causes lung infections and other healthcare-associated infections in humans. Due to the rise in resistance to common antibacterial drugs, it is critical that we develop alternatives to traditional treatment procedures. Furthermore, an understanding of the biochemical mechanisms underlying pathogenic evolution is important for the treatment and management of these diseases. In this study, metabolic models have been developed for two bacterial pathogens, M. leprae and My. abscessus, and a new computational tool has been used to identify potential drug targets, which are referred to as bottleneck reactions. The genes, reactions, and pathways in each of these organisms have been highlighted; the potential drug targets can be further explored as broad-spectrum antibacterials and the unique drug targets for each pathogen are significant for precision medicine initiatives. The models and associated datasets described in this paper are available in GigaDB, Biomodels, and PatMeDB repositories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bridget P. Bannerman
- Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, Lady Margaret Rd, Cambridge, CB3 0BU, UK
- Science Resources Foundation, 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, UK
| | - Alexandru Oarga
- Department of Computer Science and Systems Engineering, University of Zaragoza, C/María de Luna n 1, 50018, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Jorge Júlvez
- Department of Computer Science and Systems Engineering, University of Zaragoza, C/María de Luna n 1, 50018, Zaragoza, Spain
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84
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Chen C, Liao C, Liu YY. Teasing out missing reactions in genome-scale metabolic networks through hypergraph learning. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2375. [PMID: 37185345 PMCID: PMC10130184 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38110-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2022] [Accepted: 04/14/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023] Open
Abstract
GEnome-scale Metabolic models (GEMs) are powerful tools to predict cellular metabolism and physiological states in living organisms. However, due to our imperfect knowledge of metabolic processes, even highly curated GEMs have knowledge gaps (e.g., missing reactions). Existing gap-filling methods typically require phenotypic data as input to tease out missing reactions. We still lack a computational method for rapid and accurate gap-filling of metabolic networks before experimental data is available. Here we present a deep learning-based method - CHEbyshev Spectral HyperlInk pREdictor (CHESHIRE) - to predict missing reactions in GEMs purely from metabolic network topology. We demonstrate that CHESHIRE outperforms other topology-based methods in predicting artificially removed reactions over 926 high- and intermediate-quality GEMs. Furthermore, CHESHIRE is able to improve the phenotypic predictions of 49 draft GEMs for fermentation products and amino acids secretions. Both types of validation suggest that CHESHIRE is a powerful tool for GEM curation to reveal unknown links between reactions and observed metabolic phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Can Chen
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Chen Liao
- Program for Computational and Systems Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, 10065, USA
| | - Yang-Yu Liu
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
- Center for Artificial Intelligence and Modeling, The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, 61801, USA.
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85
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Schroeder WL, Kuil T, van Maris AJA, Olson DG, Lynd LR, Maranas CD. A detailed genome-scale metabolic model of Clostridium thermocellum investigates sources of pyrophosphate for driving glycolysis. Metab Eng 2023; 77:306-322. [PMID: 37085141 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2023.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2023] [Revised: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 04/08/2023] [Indexed: 04/23/2023]
Abstract
Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant and renewable source of carbon for chemical manufacturing, yet it is cumbersome in conventional processes. A promising, and increasingly studied, candidate for lignocellulose bioprocessing is the thermophilic anaerobe Clostridium thermocellum given its potential to produce ethanol, organic acids, and hydrogen gas from lignocellulosic biomass under high substrate loading. Possessing an atypical glycolytic pathway which substitutes GTP or pyrophosphate (PPi) for ATP in some steps, including in the energy-investment phase, identification, and manipulation of PPi sources are key to engineering its metabolism. Previous efforts to identify the primary pyrophosphate have been unsuccessful. Here, we explore pyrophosphate metabolism through reconstructing, updating, and analyzing a new genome-scale stoichiometric model for C. thermocellum, iCTH669. Hundreds of changes to the former GEM, iCBI655, including correcting cofactor usages, addressing charge and elemental balance, standardizing biomass composition, and incorporating the latest experimental evidence led to a MEMOTE score improvement to 94%. We found agreement of iCTH669 model predictions across all available fermentation and biomass yield datasets. The feasibility of hundreds of PPi synthesis routes, newly identified and previously proposed, were assessed through the lens of the iCTH669 model including biomass synthesis, tRNA synthesis, newly identified sources, and previously proposed PPi-generating cycles. In all cases, the metabolic cost of PPi synthesis is at best equivalent to investment of one ATP suggesting no direct energetic advantage for the cofactor substitution in C. thermocellum. Even though no unique source of PPi could be gleaned by the model, by combining with gene expression data two most likely scenarios emerge. First, previously investigated PPi sources likely account for most PPi production in wild-type strains. Second, alternate metabolic routes as encoded by iCTH669 can collectively maintain PPi levels even when previously investigated synthesis cycles are disrupted. Model iCTH669 is available at github.com/maranasgroup/iCTH669.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wheaton L Schroeder
- Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA; Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Teun Kuil
- Department of Industrial Biotechnology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Antonius J A van Maris
- Department of Industrial Biotechnology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Daniel G Olson
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, TN, USA; Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Lee R Lynd
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, TN, USA; Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Costas D Maranas
- Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA; Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
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86
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Blázquez B, San León D, Rojas A, Tortajada M, Nogales J. New Insights on Metabolic Features of Bacillus subtilis Based on Multistrain Genome-Scale Metabolic Modeling. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24087091. [PMID: 37108252 PMCID: PMC10138676 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24087091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2023] [Revised: 04/01/2023] [Accepted: 04/10/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Bacillus subtilis is an effective workhorse for the production of many industrial products. The high interest aroused by B. subtilis has guided a large metabolic modeling effort of this species. Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) are powerful tools for predicting the metabolic capabilities of a given organism. However, high-quality GEMs are required in order to provide accurate predictions. In this work, we construct a high-quality, mostly manually curated genome-scale model for B. subtilis (iBB1018). The model was validated by means of growth performance and carbon flux distribution and provided significantly more accurate predictions than previous models. iBB1018 was able to predict carbon source utilization with great accuracy while identifying up to 28 metabolites as potential novel carbon sources. The constructed model was further used as a tool for the construction of the panphenome of B. subtilis as a species, by means of multistrain genome-scale reconstruction. The panphenome space was defined in the context of 183 GEMs representative of 183 B. subtilis strains and the array of carbon sources sustaining growth. Our analysis highlights the large metabolic versatility of the species and the important role of the accessory metabolism as a driver of the panphenome, at a species level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Blas Blázquez
- Department of Systems Biology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, CSIC, 28049 Madrid, Spain
- Interdisciplinary Platform for Sustainable Plastics towards a Circular Economy-Spanish National Research Council (SusPlast-CSIC), 28040 Madrid, Spain
| | - David San León
- Department of Systems Biology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, CSIC, 28049 Madrid, Spain
- Interdisciplinary Platform for Sustainable Plastics towards a Circular Economy-Spanish National Research Council (SusPlast-CSIC), 28040 Madrid, Spain
| | - Antonia Rojas
- Archer Daniels Midland, Nutrition, Biopolis S.L. Parc Científic Universitat de València, Carrer del Catedrático Agustín Escardino Benlloch, 9, 46980 Paterna, Spain
| | - Marta Tortajada
- Archer Daniels Midland, Nutrition, Biopolis S.L. Parc Científic Universitat de València, Carrer del Catedrático Agustín Escardino Benlloch, 9, 46980 Paterna, Spain
| | - Juan Nogales
- Department of Systems Biology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, CSIC, 28049 Madrid, Spain
- Interdisciplinary Platform for Sustainable Plastics towards a Circular Economy-Spanish National Research Council (SusPlast-CSIC), 28040 Madrid, Spain
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87
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Ramon C, Stelling J. Functional comparison of metabolic networks across species. Nat Commun 2023; 14:1699. [PMID: 36973280 PMCID: PMC10043025 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37429-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2022] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Metabolic phenotypes are pivotal for many areas, but disentangling how evolutionary history and environmental adaptation shape these phenotypes is an open problem. Especially for microbes, which are metabolically diverse and often interact in complex communities, few phenotypes can be determined directly. Instead, potential phenotypes are commonly inferred from genomic information, and rarely were model-predicted phenotypes employed beyond the species level. Here, we propose sensitivity correlations to quantify similarity of predicted metabolic network responses to perturbations, and thereby link genotype and environment to phenotype. We show that these correlations provide a consistent functional complement to genomic information by capturing how network context shapes gene function. This enables, for example, phylogenetic inference across all domains of life at the organism level. For 245 bacterial species, we identify conserved and variable metabolic functions, elucidate the quantitative impact of evolutionary history and ecological niche on these functions, and generate hypotheses on associated metabolic phenotypes. We expect our framework for the joint interpretation of metabolic phenotypes, evolution, and environment to help guide future empirical studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Ramon
- Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering and SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, ETH Zurich, 4058, Basel, Switzerland
- Ph.D. Program Systems Biology, Life Science Zurich Graduate School, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Jörg Stelling
- Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering and SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, ETH Zurich, 4058, Basel, Switzerland.
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88
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Kaste JAM, Shachar-Hill Y. Model Validation and Selection in Metabolic Flux Analysis and Flux Balance Analysis. ARXIV 2023:arXiv:2303.12651v1. [PMID: 36994165 PMCID: PMC10055486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/31/2023]
Abstract
13C-Metabolic Flux Analysis (13C-MFA) and Flux Balance Analysis (FBA) are widely used to investigate the operation of biochemical networks in both biological and biotechnological research. Both of these methods use metabolic reaction network models of metabolism operating at steady state, so that reaction rates (fluxes) and the levels of metabolic intermediates are constrained to be invariant. They provide estimated (MFA) or predicted (FBA) values of the fluxes through the network in vivo, which cannot be measured directly. A number of approaches have been taken to test the reliability of estimates and predictions from constraint-based methods and to decide on and/or discriminate between alternative model architectures. Despite advances in other areas of the statistical evaluation of metabolic models, validation and model selection methods have been underappreciated and underexplored. We review the history and state-of-the-art in constraint-based metabolic model validation and model selection. Applications and limitations of the χ2-test of goodness-of-fit, the most widely used quantitative validation and selection approach in 13C-MFA, are discussed, and complementary and alternative forms of validation and selection are proposed. A combined model validation and selection framework for 13C-MFA incorporating metabolite pool size information that leverages new developments in the field is presented and advocated for. Finally, we discuss how the adoption of robust validation and selection procedures can enhance confidence in constraint-based modeling as a whole and ultimately facilitate more widespread use of FBA in biotechnology in particular.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua A M Kaste
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, 603 Wilson Rd, East Lansing, MI 48823
- Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, 612 Wilson Rd, East Lansing, MI 48824
| | - Yair Shachar-Hill
- Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, 612 Wilson Rd, East Lansing, MI 48824
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89
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Santos-Merino M, Gargantilla-Becerra Á, de la Cruz F, Nogales J. Highlighting the potential of Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 as platform to produce α-linolenic acid through an updated genome-scale metabolic modeling. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1126030. [PMID: 36998399 PMCID: PMC10043229 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1126030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2023] [Accepted: 02/22/2023] [Indexed: 03/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Cyanobacteria are prokaryotic organisms that capture energy from sunlight using oxygenic photosynthesis and transform CO2 into products of interest such as fatty acids. Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 is a model cyanobacterium efficiently engineered to accumulate high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. However, its exploitation as a microbial cell factory requires a better knowledge of its metabolism, which can be approached by using systems biology tools. To fulfill this objective, we worked out an updated, more comprehensive, and functional genome-scale model of this freshwater cyanobacterium, which was termed iMS837. The model includes 837 genes, 887 reactions, and 801 metabolites. When compared with previous models of S. elongatus PCC 7942, iMS837 is more complete in key physiological and biotechnologically relevant metabolic hubs, such as fatty acid biosynthesis, oxidative phosphorylation, photosynthesis, and transport, among others. iMS837 shows high accuracy when predicting growth performance and gene essentiality. The validated model was further used as a test-bed for the assessment of suitable metabolic engineering strategies, yielding superior production of non-native omega-3 fatty acids such as α-linolenic acid (ALA). As previously reported, the computational analysis demonstrated that fabF overexpression is a feasible metabolic target to increase ALA production, whereas deletion and overexpression of fabH cannot be used for this purpose. Flux scanning based on enforced objective flux, a strain-design algorithm, allowed us to identify not only previously known gene overexpression targets that improve fatty acid synthesis, such as Acetyl-CoA carboxylase and β-ketoacyl-ACP synthase I, but also novel potential targets that might lead to higher ALA yields. Systematic sampling of the metabolic space contained in iMS837 identified a set of ten additional knockout metabolic targets that resulted in higher ALA productions. In silico simulations under photomixotrophic conditions with acetate or glucose as a carbon source boosted ALA production levels, indicating that photomixotrophic nutritional regimens could be potentially exploited in vivo to improve fatty acid production in cyanobacteria. Overall, we show that iMS837 is a powerful computational platform that proposes new metabolic engineering strategies to produce biotechnologically relevant compounds, using S. elongatus PCC 7942 as non-conventional microbial cell factory.
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Affiliation(s)
- María Santos-Merino
- Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnología de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria—CSIC, Santander, Cantabria, Spain
- *Correspondence: María Santos-Merino,
| | - Álvaro Gargantilla-Becerra
- Department of Systems Biology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
- Interdisciplinary Platform for Sustainable Plastics towards a Circular Economy-Spanish National Research Council (SusPlast-CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Fernando de la Cruz
- Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnología de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria—CSIC, Santander, Cantabria, Spain
| | - Juan Nogales
- Department of Systems Biology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
- Interdisciplinary Platform for Sustainable Plastics towards a Circular Economy-Spanish National Research Council (SusPlast-CSIC), Madrid, Spain
- Juan Nogales,
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90
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Gelbach PE, Finley SD. Ensemble-based genome-scale modeling predicts metabolic differences between macrophage subtypes in colorectal cancer. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.03.09.532000. [PMID: 36993493 PMCID: PMC10052244 DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.09.532000] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
1Colorectal cancer (CRC) shows high incidence and mortality, partly due to the tumor microenvironment, which is viewed as an active promoter of disease progression. Macrophages are among the most abundant cells in the tumor microenvironment. These immune cells are generally categorized as M1, with inflammatory and anti-cancer properties, or M2, which promote tumor proliferation and survival. Although the M1/M2 subclassification scheme is strongly influenced by metabolism, the metabolic divergence between the subtypes remains poorly understood. Therefore, we generated a suite of computational models that characterize the M1- and M2-specific metabolic states. Our models show key differences between the M1 and M2 metabolic networks and capabilities. We leverage the models to identify metabolic perturbations that cause the metabolic state of M2 macrophages to more closely resemble M1 cells. Overall, this work increases understanding of macrophage metabolism in CRC and elucidates strategies to promote the metabolic state of anti-tumor macrophages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick E. Gelbach
- Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Stacey D. Finley
- Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
- Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
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91
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Sorokin A, Goryanin I. FBA-PRCC. Partial Rank Correlation Coefficient (PRCC) Global Sensitivity Analysis (GSA) in Application to Constraint-Based Models. Biomolecules 2023; 13:biom13030500. [PMID: 36979435 PMCID: PMC10046323 DOI: 10.3390/biom13030500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2022] [Revised: 02/24/2023] [Accepted: 03/02/2023] [Indexed: 03/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Background: Whole-genome models (GEMs) have become a versatile tool for systems biology, biotechnology, and medicine. GEMs created by automatic and semi-automatic approaches contain a lot of redundant reactions. At the same time, the nonlinearity of the model makes it difficult to evaluate the significance of the reaction for cell growth or metabolite production. Methods: We propose a new way to apply the global sensitivity analysis (GSA) to GEMs in a straightforward parallelizable fashion. Results: We have shown that Partial Rank Correlation Coefficient (PRCC) captures key steps in the metabolic network despite the network distance from the product synthesis reaction. Conclusions: FBA-PRCC is a fast, interpretable, and reliable metric to identify the sign and magnitude of the reaction contribution to various cellular functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anatoly Sorokin
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan
- Correspondence: (A.S.); (I.G.)
| | - Igor Goryanin
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, China
- School of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, Informatics Forum, Edinburgh EH8 9AB, UK
- Correspondence: (A.S.); (I.G.)
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92
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Guizar-Heredia R, Noriega LG, Rivera AL, Resendis-Antonio O, Guevara-Cruz M, Torres N, Tovar AR. A New Approach to Personalized Nutrition: Postprandial Glycemic Response and its Relationship to Gut Microbiota. Arch Med Res 2023; 54:176-188. [PMID: 36990891 DOI: 10.1016/j.arcmed.2023.02.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2022] [Revised: 02/19/2023] [Accepted: 02/28/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023]
Abstract
A prolonged and elevated postprandial glucose response (PPGR) is now considered a main factor contributing for the development of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, which could be prevented by dietary interventions. However, dietary recommendations to prevent alterations in PPGR have not always been successful. New evidence has supported that PPGR is not only dependent of dietary factors like the content of carbohydrates, or the glycemic index of the foods, but is also dependent on genetics, body composition, gut microbiota, among others. In recent years, continuous glucose monitoring has made it possible to establish predictions on the effect of different dietary foods on PPGRs through machine learning methods, which use algorithms that integrate genetic, biochemical, physiological and gut microbiota variables for identifying associations between them and clinical variables with aim of personalize dietary recommendations. This has allowed to improve the concept of personalized nutrition, since it is now possible to recommend through these predictions specific dietary foods to prevent elevated PPGRs that are highly variable among individuals. Additional components that can enrich the predictive algorithms are findings of nutrigenomics, nutrigenetics and metabolomics. Thus, this review aims to summarize the evidence of the components that integrate personalized nutrition focused on the prevention of PPGRs, and to show the future of personalized nutrition by laying the groundwork for the development of individualized dietary management and its impact on the improvement of metabolic diseases.
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93
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Leonidou N, Renz A, Mostolizadeh R, Dräger A. New workflow predicts drug targets against SARS-CoV-2 via metabolic changes in infected cells. PLoS Comput Biol 2023; 19:e1010903. [PMID: 36952396 PMCID: PMC10035753 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 03/25/2023] Open
Abstract
COVID-19 is one of the deadliest respiratory diseases, and its emergence caught the pharmaceutical industry off guard. While vaccines have been rapidly developed, treatment options for infected people remain scarce, and COVID-19 poses a substantial global threat. This study presents a novel workflow to predict robust druggable targets against emerging RNA viruses using metabolic networks and information of the viral structure and its genome sequence. For this purpose, we implemented pymCADRE and PREDICATE to create tissue-specific metabolic models, construct viral biomass functions and predict host-based antiviral targets from more than one genome. We observed that pymCADRE reduces the computational time of flux variability analysis for internal optimizations. We applied these tools to create a new metabolic network of primary bronchial epithelial cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 and identified enzymatic reactions with inhibitory effects. The most promising reported targets were from the purine metabolism, while targeting the pyrimidine and carbohydrate metabolisms seemed to be promising approaches to enhance viral inhibition. Finally, we computationally tested the robustness of our targets in all known variants of concern, verifying our targets' inhibitory effects. Since laboratory tests are time-consuming and involve complex readouts to track processes, our workflow focuses on metabolic fluxes within infected cells and is applicable for rapid hypothesis-driven identification of potentially exploitable antivirals concerning various viruses and host cell types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nantia Leonidou
- Computational Systems Biology of Infections and Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens, Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI), Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Computer Science, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections’, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Alina Renz
- Computational Systems Biology of Infections and Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens, Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI), Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Computer Science, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections’, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Reihaneh Mostolizadeh
- Computational Systems Biology of Infections and Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens, Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI), Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Computer Science, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections’, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), partner site Tübingen, Germany
| | - Andreas Dräger
- Computational Systems Biology of Infections and Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens, Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI), Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Computer Science, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence ‘Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections’, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), partner site Tübingen, Germany
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94
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Kim S, Nam Y, Kim MJ, Kwon SH, Jeon J, Shin SJ, Park S, Chang S, Kim HU, Lee YY, Kim HS, Moon M. Proteomic analysis for the effects of non-saponin fraction with rich polysaccharide from Korean Red Ginseng on Alzheimer's disease in a mouse model. J Ginseng Res 2023; 47:302-310. [PMID: 36926613 PMCID: PMC10014184 DOI: 10.1016/j.jgr.2022.09.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2022] [Revised: 08/25/2022] [Accepted: 09/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The most common type of dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD), is marked by the formation of extracellular amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques. The impairments of axons and synapses appear in the process of Aβ plaques formation, and this damage could cause neurodegeneration. We previously reported that non-saponin fraction with rich polysaccharide (NFP) from Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) showed neuroprotective effects in AD. However, precise molecular mechanism of the therapeutic effects of NFP from KRG in AD still remains elusive. Methods To investigate the therapeutic mechanisms of NFP from KRG on AD, we conducted proteomic analysis for frontal cortex from vehicle-treated wild-type, vehicle-treated 5XFAD mice, and NFP-treated 5XFAD mice by using nano-LC-ESI-MS/MS. Metabolic network analysis was additionally performed as the effects of NFP appeared to be associated with metabolism according to the proteome analysis. Results Starting from 5,470 proteins, 2,636 proteins were selected for hierarchical clustering analysis, and finally 111 proteins were further selected for protein-protein interaction network analysis. A series of these analyses revealed that proteins associated with synapse and mitochondria might be linked to the therapeutic mechanism of NFP. Subsequent metabolic network analysis via genome-scale metabolic models that represent the three mouse groups showed that there were significant changes in metabolic fluxes of mitochondrial carnitine shuttle pathway and mitochondrial beta-oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Conclusion Our results suggested that the therapeutic effects of NFP on AD were associated with synaptic- and mitochondrial-related pathways, and they provided targets for further rigorous studies on precise understanding of the molecular mechanism of NFP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sujin Kim
- Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Konyang University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.,Research Institute for Dementia Science, Konyang University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Yunkwon Nam
- Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Konyang University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Min-Jeong Kim
- Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Konyang University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Seung-Hyun Kwon
- Veterans Medical Research Institute, Veterans Health Service Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Junhyeok Jeon
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 four), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Soo Jung Shin
- Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Konyang University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Soyoon Park
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, College of Biological Sciences, University of California, California, United States
| | - Sungjae Chang
- Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Konyang University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyun Uk Kim
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 four), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Yong Yook Lee
- The Korean Ginseng Research Institute, Korea Ginseng Corporation, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Hak Su Kim
- Veterans Medical Research Institute, Veterans Health Service Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Minho Moon
- Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Konyang University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.,Research Institute for Dementia Science, Konyang University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
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95
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Coppens L, Tschirhart T, Leary DH, Colston SM, Compton JR, Hervey WJ, Dana KL, Vora GJ, Bordel S, Ledesma-Amaro R. Vibrio natriegens genome-scale modeling reveals insights into halophilic adaptations and resource allocation. Mol Syst Biol 2023; 19:e10523. [PMID: 36847213 PMCID: PMC10090949 DOI: 10.15252/msb.202110523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2021] [Revised: 02/07/2023] [Accepted: 02/09/2023] [Indexed: 03/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Vibrio natriegens is a Gram-negative bacterium with an exceptional growth rate that has the potential to become a standard biotechnological host for laboratory and industrial bioproduction. Despite this burgeoning interest, the current lack of organism-specific qualitative and quantitative computational tools has hampered the community's ability to rationally engineer this bacterium. In this study, we present the first genome-scale metabolic model (GSMM) of V. natriegens. The GSMM (iLC858) was developed using an automated draft assembly and extensive manual curation and was validated by comparing predicted yields, central metabolic fluxes, viable carbon substrates, and essential genes with empirical data. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics data confirmed the translation of at least 76% of the enzyme-encoding genes predicted to be expressed by the model during aerobic growth in a minimal medium. iLC858 was subsequently used to carry out a metabolic comparison between the model organism Escherichia coli and V. natriegens, leading to an analysis of the model architecture of V. natriegens' respiratory and ATP-generating system and the discovery of a role for a sodium-dependent oxaloacetate decarboxylase pump. The proteomics data were further used to investigate additional halophilic adaptations of V. natriegens. Finally, iLC858 was utilized to create a Resource Balance Analysis model to study the allocation of carbon resources. Taken together, the models presented provide useful computational tools to guide metabolic engineering efforts in V. natriegens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Coppens
- Department of Bioengineering and Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Tanya Tschirhart
- US Naval Research Laboratory, Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Dagmar H Leary
- US Naval Research Laboratory, Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Sophie M Colston
- US Naval Research Laboratory, Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Jaimee R Compton
- US Naval Research Laboratory, Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering, Washington, DC, USA
| | - William Judson Hervey
- US Naval Research Laboratory, Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering, Washington, DC, USA
| | | | - Gary J Vora
- US Naval Research Laboratory, Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Sergio Bordel
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, School of Industrial Engineering, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain
| | - Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro
- Department of Bioengineering and Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology, Imperial College London, London, UK
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96
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Dillard LR, Glass EM, Lewis AL, Thomas-White K, Papin JA. Metabolic Network Models of the Gardnerella Pangenome Identify Key Interactions with the Vaginal Environment. mSystems 2023; 8:e0068922. [PMID: 36511689 PMCID: PMC9948698 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00689-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Accepted: 11/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Gardnerella is the primary pathogenic bacterial genus present in the polymicrobial condition known as bacterial vaginosis (BV). Despite BV's high prevalence and associated chronic and acute women's health impacts, the Gardnerella pangenome is largely uncharacterized at both the genetic and functional metabolic levels. Here, we used genome-scale metabolic models to characterize in silico the Gardnerella pangenome metabolic content. We also assessed the metabolic functional capacity in a BV-positive cervicovaginal fluid context. The metabolic capacity varied widely across the pangenome, with 38.15% of all reactions being core to the genus, compared to 49.60% of reactions identified as being unique to a smaller subset of species. We identified 57 essential genes across the pangenome via in silico gene essentiality screens within two simulated vaginal metabolic environments. Four genes, gpsA, fas, suhB, and psd, were identified as core essential genes critical for the metabolic function of all analyzed bacterial species of the Gardnerella genus. Further understanding these core essential metabolic functions could inform novel therapeutic strategies to treat BV. Machine learning applied to simulated metabolic network flux distributions showed limited clustering based on the sample isolation source, which further supports the presence of extensive core metabolic functionality across this genus. These data represent the first metabolic modeling of the Gardnerella pangenome and illustrate strain-specific interactions with the vaginal metabolic environment across the pangenome. IMPORTANCE Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common vaginal infection among reproductive-age women. Despite its prevalence and associated chronic and acute women's health impacts, the diverse bacteria involved in BV infection remain poorly characterized. Gardnerella is the genus of bacteria most commonly and most abundantly represented during BV. In this paper, we use metabolic models, which are a computational representation of the possible functional metabolism of an organism, to investigate metabolic conservation, gene essentiality, and pathway utilization across 110 Gardnerella strains. These models allow us to investigate in silico how strains may differ with respect to their metabolic interactions with the vaginal-host environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lillian R. Dillard
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - Emma M. Glass
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - Amanda L. Lewis
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California—San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
| | | | - Jason A. Papin
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
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97
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Clasen F, Nunes PM, Bidkhori G, Bah N, Boeing S, Shoaie S, Anastasiou D. Systematic diet composition swap in a mouse genome-scale metabolic model reveals determinants of obesogenic diet metabolism in liver cancer. iScience 2023; 26:106040. [PMID: 36844450 PMCID: PMC9947310 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Revised: 09/08/2022] [Accepted: 01/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Dietary nutrient availability and gene expression, together, influence tissue metabolic activity. Here, we explore whether altering dietary nutrient composition in the context of mouse liver cancer suffices to overcome chronic gene expression changes that arise from tumorigenesis and western-style diet (WD). We construct a mouse genome-scale metabolic model and estimate metabolic fluxes in liver tumors and non-tumoral tissue after computationally varying the composition of input diet. This approach, called Systematic Diet Composition Swap (SyDiCoS), revealed that, compared to a control diet, WD increases production of glycerol and succinate irrespective of specific tissue gene expression patterns. Conversely, differences in fatty acid utilization pathways between tumor and non-tumor liver are amplified with WD by both dietary carbohydrates and lipids together. Our data suggest that combined dietary component modifications may be required to normalize the distinctive metabolic patterns that underlie selective targeting of tumor metabolism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frederick Clasen
- Cancer Metabolism Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London NW1 1AT, UK
- Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, King’s College London, London SE1 9RT, UK
| | - Patrícia M. Nunes
- Cancer Metabolism Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London NW1 1AT, UK
| | - Gholamreza Bidkhori
- Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, King’s College London, London SE1 9RT, UK
| | - Nourdine Bah
- Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Science Technology Platform, Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London NW1 1AT, UK
| | - Stefan Boeing
- Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Science Technology Platform, Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London NW1 1AT, UK
| | - Saeed Shoaie
- Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, King’s College London, London SE1 9RT, UK
- Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab), KTH - Royal Institute of Technology, Tomtebodavägen 23, 171 65 Solna, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Dimitrios Anastasiou
- Cancer Metabolism Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London NW1 1AT, UK
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98
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Bi X, Cheng Y, Xu X, Lv X, Liu Y, Li J, Du G, Chen J, Ledesma-Amaro R, Liu L. etiBsu1209: A comprehensive multiscale metabolic model for Bacillus subtilis. Biotechnol Bioeng 2023; 120:1623-1639. [PMID: 36788025 DOI: 10.1002/bit.28355] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2022] [Revised: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 02/13/2023] [Indexed: 02/16/2023]
Abstract
Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) have been widely used to guide the computational design of microbial cell factories, and to date, seven GEMs have been reported for Bacillus subtilis, a model gram-positive microorganism widely used in bioproduction of functional nutraceuticals and food ingredients. However, none of them are widely used because they often lead to erroneous predictions due to their low predictive power and lack of information on regulatory mechanisms. In this work, we constructed a new version of GEM for B. subtilis (iBsu1209), which contains 1209 genes, 1595 metabolites, and 1948 reactions. We applied machine learning to fill gaps, which formed a relatively complete metabolic network able to predict with high accuracy (89.3%) the growth of 1209 mutants under 12 different culture conditions. In addition, we developed a visualization and code-free software, Model Tool, for multiconstraints model reconstruction and analysis. We used this software to construct etiBsu1209, a multiscale model that integrates enzymatic constraints, thermodynamic constraints, and transcriptional regulatory networks. Furthermore, we used etiBsu1209 to guide a metabolic engineering strategy (knocking out fabI and yfkN genes) for the overproduction of nutraceutical menaquinone-7, and the titer increased to 153.94 mg/L, 2.2-times that of the parental strain. To the best of our knowledge, etiBsu1209 is the first comprehensive multiscale model for B. subtilis and can serve as a solid basis for rational computational design of B. subtilis cell factories for bioproduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinyu Bi
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.,Science Center for Future Foods, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
| | - Yang Cheng
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.,Science Center for Future Foods, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
| | - Xianhao Xu
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.,Science Center for Future Foods, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
| | - Xueqin Lv
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.,Science Center for Future Foods, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
| | - Yanfeng Liu
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.,Science Center for Future Foods, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
| | - Jianghua Li
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.,Science Center for Future Foods, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
| | - Guocheng Du
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.,Science Center for Future Foods, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
| | - Jian Chen
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.,Science Center for Future Foods, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
| | | | - Long Liu
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.,Science Center for Future Foods, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
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99
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Genome-scale model of Pseudomonas aeruginosa metabolism unveils virulence and drug potentiation. Commun Biol 2023; 6:165. [PMID: 36765199 PMCID: PMC9918512 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04540-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2021] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the leading causes of hospital-acquired infections. To decipher the metabolic mechanisms associated with virulence and antibiotic resistance, we have developed an updated genome-scale model (GEM) of P. aeruginosa. The model (iSD1509) is an extensively curated, three-compartment, and mass-and-charge balanced BiGG model containing 1509 genes, the largest gene content for any P. aeruginosa GEM to date. It is the most accurate with prediction accuracies as high as 92.4% (gene essentiality) and 93.5% (substrate utilization). In iSD1509, we newly added a recently discovered pathway for ubiquinone-9 biosynthesis which is required for anaerobic growth. We used a modified iSD1509 to demonstrate the role of virulence factor (phenazines) in the pathogen survival within biofilm/oxygen-limited condition. Further, the model can mechanistically explain the overproduction of a drug susceptibility biomarker in the P. aeruginosa mutants. Finally, we use iSD1509 to demonstrate the drug potentiation by metabolite supplementation, and elucidate the mechanisms behind the phenotype, which agree with experimental results.
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100
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Generation and analysis of context-specific genome-scale metabolic models derived from single-cell RNA-Seq data. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2217868120. [PMID: 36719923 PMCID: PMC9963017 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2217868120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Single-cell RNA sequencing combined with genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) has the potential to unravel the differences in metabolism across both cell types and cell states but requires new computational methods. Here, we present a method for generating cell-type-specific genome-scale models from clusters of single-cell RNA-Seq profiles. Specifically, we developed a method to estimate the minimum number of cells required to pool to obtain stable models, a bootstrapping strategy for estimating statistical inference, and a faster version of the task-driven integrative network inference for tissues algorithm for generating context-specific GEMs. In addition, we evaluated the effect of different RNA-Seq normalization methods on model topology and differences in models generated from single-cell and bulk RNA-Seq data. We applied our methods on data from mouse cortex neurons and cells from the tumor microenvironment of lung cancer and in both cases found that almost every cell subtype had a unique metabolic profile. In addition, our approach was able to detect cancer-associated metabolic differences between cancer cells and healthy cells, showcasing its utility. We also contextualized models from 202 single-cell clusters across 19 human organs using data from Human Protein Atlas and made these available in the web portal Metabolic Atlas, thereby providing a valuable resource to the scientific community. With the ever-increasing availability of single-cell RNA-Seq datasets and continuously improved GEMs, their combination holds promise to become an important approach in the study of human metabolism.
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