scholarly journals XomicsToModel: Multiomics data integration and generation of thermodynamically consistent metabolic models

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
German Preciat ◽  
Agnieszka B. Wegrzyn ◽  
Ines Thiele ◽  
Thomas Hankemeier ◽  
Ronan MT Fleming
Keyword(s):  
Data Integration ◽  
Input Data ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Specific Model ◽  
Biochemical Network ◽  
Metabolic Reconstruction ◽  
Generic Model ◽  
Metabolomic Data ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Genome Scale

Constraint-based modelling can mechanistically simulate the behaviour of a biochemical system, permitting hypotheses generation, experimental design and interpretation of experimental data, with numerous applications, including modelling of metabolism. Given a generic model, several methods have been developed to extract a context-specific, genome-scale metabolic model by incorporating information used to identify metabolic processes and gene activities in a given context. However, existing model extraction algorithms are unable to ensure that the context-specific model is thermodynamically feasible. This protocol introduces XomicsToModel, a semi-automated pipeline that integrates bibliomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data with a generic genome-scale metabolic reconstruction, or model, to extract a context-specific, genome-scale metabolic model that is stoichiometrically, thermodynamically and flux consistent. The XomicsToModel pipeline is exemplified for extraction of a specific metabolic model from a generic metabolic model, but it enables multi-omic data integration and extraction of physicochemically consistent mechanistic models from any generic biochemical network. With all input data fully prepared, algorithmic completion of the pipeline takes ~10 min, however manual review of intermediate results may also be required, e.g., when inconsistent input data lead to an infeasible model.

scholarly journals On the inconsistent treatment of gene-protein-reaction rules in context-specific metabolic models

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Ponce-de-León ◽  
Iñigo Apaolaza ◽  
Alfonso Valencia ◽  
Francisco J. Planes
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Specific Model ◽  
Omics Data ◽  
Model Reconstruction ◽  
Reconstruction Algorithms ◽  
Reconstruction Methods ◽  
Metabolic Models ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Genome Scale

ABSTRACTWith the publication of high-quality genome-scale metabolic models for several organisms, the Systems Biology community has developed a number of algorithms for their analysis making use of ever growing –omics data. In particular, the reconstruction of the first genome-scale human metabolic model, Recon1, promoted the development of Context-Specific Model (CS-Model) reconstruction methods. This family of algorithms aims to identify the set of metabolic reactions that are active in a cell in a given condition using omics data, such as gene expression levels. Different CS-Model reconstruction algorithms have their own strengths and weaknesses depending on the problem under study and omics data available. However, after careful inspection, we found that all of these algorithms share common issues in the way GPR rules and gene expression data are treated. The first issue is related with how gapfilling reactions are managed after the reconstruction is conducted. The second issue concerns the molecular context, which is used to build the CS-model but neglected for posterior analyses. To evaluate the effect of these issues, we reconstructed ∼400 CS-Models of cancer cell lines and conducted gene essentiality analysis, using CRISPR–Cas9 essentiality data for validation purposes. Altogether, our results illustrate the importance of correcting the errors introduced during the GPR translation in many of the published metabolic reconstructions.

scholarly journals A metabolic reconstruction of Lactobacillus reuteri JCM 1112 and analysis of its potential as a cell factory

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thordis Kristjansdottir ◽  
Elleke F. Bosma ◽  
Filipe Branco dos Santos ◽  
Emre Özdemir ◽  
Markus J. Herrgård ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Metabolic Engineering ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Lactobacillus Reuteri ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Metabolic Reconstruction ◽  
Cell Factory ◽  
A Genome ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Genome Scale

Abstract Background Lactobacillus reuteri is a heterofermentative Lactic Acid Bacterium (LAB) that is commonly used for food fermentations and probiotic purposes. Due to its robust properties, it is also increasingly considered for use as a cell factory. It produces several industrially important compounds such as 1,3-propanediol and reuterin natively, but for cell factory purposes, developing improved strategies for engineering and fermentation optimization is crucial. Genome-scale metabolic models can be highly beneficial in guiding rational metabolic engineering. Reconstructing a reliable and a quantitatively accurate metabolic model requires extensive manual curation and incorporation of experimental data. Results A genome-scale metabolic model of L. reuteri JCM 1112T was reconstructed and the resulting model, Lreuteri_530, was validated and tested with experimental data. Several knowledge gaps in the metabolism were identified and resolved during this process, including presence/absence of glycolytic genes. Flux distribution between the two glycolytic pathways, the phosphoketolase and Embden–Meyerhof–Parnas pathways, varies considerably between LAB species and strains. As these pathways result in different energy yields, it is important to include strain-specific utilization of these pathways in the model. We determined experimentally that the Embden–Meyerhof–Parnas pathway carried at most 7% of the total glycolytic flux. Predicted growth rates from Lreuteri_530 were in good agreement with experimentally determined values. To further validate the prediction accuracy of Lreuteri_530, the predicted effects of glycerol addition and adhE gene knock-out, which results in impaired ethanol production, were compared to in vivo data. Examination of both growth rates and uptake- and secretion rates of the main metabolites in central metabolism demonstrated that the model was able to accurately predict the experimentally observed effects. Lastly, the potential of L. reuteri as a cell factory was investigated, resulting in a number of general metabolic engineering strategies. Conclusion We have constructed a manually curated genome-scale metabolic model of L. reuteri JCM 1112T that has been experimentally parameterized and validated and can accurately predict metabolic behavior of this important platform cell factory.

scholarly journals Genome Scale Constraint-Based Metabolic Reconstruction of Propionibacterium Freudenreichii DSM 20271

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahsa Sadat Razavi Borghei ◽  
Meysam Mobasheri ◽  
Tabassom Sobati
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Networks ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Physiological Data ◽  
Metabolic Reconstruction ◽  
Modeling And Analysis ◽  
Microbial Cell Factories ◽  
Culture Optimization ◽  
Cell Factories ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
Genome Scale

Abstract Propionibacterium is an anaerobic bacterium with a history of use in the production of Swiss cheese and, more recently, several industrial bioproducts. While the use of this strain for the production of organic acids and secondary metabolites has gained growing interest, the industrial application of the strain requires further improvement in the yield and productivity of the target products. Systems modeling and analysis of metabolic networks are widely leveraged to gain holistic insights into the metabolic features of biotechnologically important strains and to devise metabolic engineering and culture optimization strategies for economically viable bioprocess development. In the present study, a high-quality genome-scale metabolic model of P. freudenreichii ssp. freudenreichii strain DSM 20271 was developed based on the strain’s genome annotation and biochemical and physiological data. The model covers the functions of 23% of the strain’s ORFs and accounts for 711 metabolic reactions and 647 unique metabolites. Literature-based reconstruction of the central metabolism and rigorous refinement of annotation data for establishing gene-protein-reaction associations renders the model a curated omic-scale knowledge base of the organism. Validation of the model against experimental data indicates that the reconstruction can capture the key structural and functional features of P. freudenreichii metabolism, including the growth rate, the pattern of flux distribution, the strain’s aerotolerance behavior, and the change in the mode of metabolic activity during the transition from an anaerobic to an aerobic growth regime. The model also includes an accurately curated pathway of cobalamin biosynthesis, which was used to examine the capacity of the strain to produce vitamin B12 precursors. Constraint-based reconstruction and analysis of the P. freudenreichii metabolic network also provided novel insights into the complexity and robustness of P. freudenreichii energy metabolism. The developed reconstruction, hence, may be used as a platform for the development of P. freudenreichii-based microbial cell factories and bioprocesses.

scholarly journals metaGEM: reconstruction of genome scale metabolic models directly from metagenomes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Zorrilla ◽  
Kiran R. Patil ◽  
Aleksej Zelezniak
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Metabolic Modeling ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Metabolic Models ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Genome Scale ◽  
Reference Genomes

AbstractAdvances in genome-resolved metagenomic analysis of complex microbial communities have revealed a large degree of interspecies and intraspecies genetic diversity through the reconstruction of metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs). Yet, metabolic modeling efforts still tend to rely on reference genomes as the starting point for reconstruction and simulation of genome scale metabolic models (GEMs), neglecting the immense intra- and inter-species diversity present in microbial communities. Here we present metaGEM (https://github.com/franciscozorrilla/metaGEM), an end-to-end highly scalable pipeline enabling metabolic modeling of multi-species communities directly from metagenomic samples. The pipeline automates all steps from the extraction of context-specific prokaryotic GEMs from metagenome assembled genomes to community level flux balance simulations. To demonstrate the capabilities of the metaGEM pipeline, we analyzed 483 samples spanning lab culture, human gut, plant associated, soil, and ocean metagenomes, to reconstruct over 14 000 prokaryotic GEMs. We show that GEMs reconstructed from metagenomes have fully represented metabolism comparable to the GEMs reconstructed from reference genomes. We further demonstrate that metagenomic GEMs capture intraspecies metabolic diversity by identifying the differences between pathogenicity levels of type 2 diabetes at the level of gut bacterial metabolic exchanges. Overall, our pipeline enables simulation-ready metabolic model reconstruction directly from individual metagenomes, provides a resource of all reconstructed metabolic models, and showcases community-level modeling of microbiomes associated with disease conditions allowing generation of mechanistic hypotheses.

scholarly journals A metabolic reconstruction of Lactobacillus reuteri JCM 1112 and analysis of its potential as a cell factory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thordis Kristjansdottir ◽  
Elleke F. Bosma ◽  
Filipe Branco dos Santos ◽  
Emre Özdemir ◽  
Markus J. Herrgård ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Metabolic Engineering ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Lactobacillus Reuteri ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Metabolic Reconstruction ◽  
Cell Factory ◽  
A Genome ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Genome Scale

AbstractBackgroundLactobacillus reuteri is a heterofermentative Lactic Acid Bacterium (LAB) that is commonly used for food fermentations and probiotic purposes. Due to its robust properties, it is also increasingly considered for use as a cell factory. It produces several industrially important compounds such as 1,3-propanediol and reuterin natively, but for cell factory purposes, developing improved strategies for engineering and fermentation optimization is crucial. Genome-scale metabolic models can be highly beneficial in guiding rational metabolic engineering. Reconstructing a reliable and a quantitatively accurate metabolic model requires extensive manual curation and incorporation of experimental data.ResultsA genome-scale metabolic model of L. reuteri JCM 1112T was reconstructed and the resulting model, Lreuteri_530, was validated and tested with experimental data. Several knowledge gaps in the metabolism were identified and resolved during this process, including presence/absence of glycolytic genes. Flux distribution between the two glycolytic pathways, the phosphoketolase and Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathways, varies considerably between LAB species and strains. As these pathways result in different energy yields, it is important to include strain-specific utilization of these pathways in the model. We determined experimentally that the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway carried at most 7% of the total glycolytic flux. Predicted growth rates from Lreuteri_530 were in good agreement with experimentally determined values. To further validate the prediction accuracy of Lreuteri_530, the predicted effects of glycerol addition and adhE gene knock-out, which results in impaired ethanol production, were compared to in vivo data. Examination of both growth rates and uptake- and secretion rates of the main metabolites in central metabolism demonstrated that the model was able to accurately predict the experimentally observed effects. Lastly, the potential of L. reuteri as a cell factory was investigated, resulting in a number of general metabolic engineering strategies.ConclusionWe have constructed a manually curated genome-scale metabolic model of L. reuteri JCM 1112T that has been experimentally parameterized and validated and can accurately predict metabolic behavior of this important platform cell factory.

scholarly journals Genome-scale metabolic reconstruction of the stress-tolerant hybrid yeast Zygosaccharomyces parabailii

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzia Di Filippo ◽  
Raúl A. Ortiz-Merino ◽  
Chiara Damiani ◽  
Gianni Frascotti ◽  
Danilo Porro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Data ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Cellular Systems ◽  
Metabolic Reconstruction ◽  
Genome Sequences ◽  
Metabolic Potential ◽  
Cell Factories ◽  
Metabolic Models ◽  
Constraint Based Modeling ◽  
Genome Scale

Genome-scale metabolic models are powerful tools to understand and engineer cellular systems facilitating their use as cell factories. This is especially true for microorganisms with known genome sequences from which nearly complete sets of enzymes and metabolic pathways are determined, or can be inferred. Yeasts are highly diverse eukaryotes whose metabolic traits have long been exploited in industry, and although many of their genome sequences are available, few genome-scale metabolic models have so far been produced. For the first time, we reconstructed the genome-scale metabolic model of the hybrid yeast Zygosaccharomyces parabailii, which is a member of the Z. bailii sensu lato clade notorious for stress-tolerance and therefore relevant to industry. The model comprises 3096 reactions, 2091 metabolites, and 2413 genes. Our own laboratory data were then used to establish a biomass synthesis reaction, and constrain the extracellular environment. Through constraint-based modeling, our model reproduces the co-consumption and catabolism of acetate and glucose posing it as a promising platform for understanding and exploiting the metabolic potential of Z. parabailii.

scholarly journals Probing the Genome-Scale Metabolic Landscape of Bordetella pertussis, the Causative Agent of Whooping Cough

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (21) ◽  
Author(s):  
Filipe Branco dos Santos ◽  
Brett G. Olivier ◽  
Joost Boele ◽  
Vincent Smessaert ◽  
Philippe De Rop ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bordetella Pertussis ◽  
Experimental Validation ◽  
Whooping Cough ◽  
Tca Cycle ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Toxin Production ◽  
Metabolic Reconstruction ◽  
Growth Media ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Genome Scale

ABSTRACT Whooping cough is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by Bordetella pertussis. Despite widespread vaccination, its incidence has been rising alarmingly, and yet, the physiology of B. pertussis remains poorly understood. We combined genome-scale metabolic reconstruction, a novel optimization algorithm, and experimental data to probe the full metabolic potential of this pathogen, using B. pertussis strain Tohama I as a reference. Experimental validation showed that B. pertussis secretes a significant proportion of nitrogen as arginine and purine nucleosides, which may contribute to modulation of the host response. We also found that B. pertussis can be unexpectedly versatile, being able to metabolize many compounds while displaying minimal nutrient requirements. It can grow without cysteine, using inorganic sulfur sources, such as thiosulfate, and it can grow on organic acids, such as citrate or lactate, as sole carbon sources, providing in vivo demonstration that its tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle is functional. Although the metabolic reconstruction of eight additional strains indicates that the structural genes underlying this metabolic flexibility are widespread, experimental validation suggests a role of strain-specific regulatory mechanisms in shaping metabolic capabilities. Among five alternative strains tested, three strains were shown to grow on substrate combinations requiring a functional TCA cycle, but only one strain could use thiosulfate. Finally, the metabolic model was used to rationally design growth media with >2-fold improvements in pertussis toxin production. This study thus provides novel insights into B. pertussis physiology and highlights the potential, but also the limitations, of models based solely on metabolic gene content. IMPORTANCE The metabolic capabilities of Bordetella pertussis, the causative agent of whooping cough, were investigated from a systems-level perspective. We constructed a comprehensive genome-scale metabolic model for B. pertussis and challenged its predictions experimentally. This systems approach shed light on new potential host-microbe interactions and allowed us to rationally design novel growth media with >2-fold improvements in pertussis toxin production. Most importantly, we also uncovered the potential for metabolic flexibility of B. pertussis (significantly larger range of substrates than previously alleged; novel active pathways allowing growth in minimal, nearly mineral nutrient combinations where only the carbon source must be organic), although our results also highlight the importance of strain-specific regulatory determinants in shaping metabolic capabilities. Deciphering the underlying regulatory mechanisms appears to be crucial for a comprehensive understanding of B. pertussis's lifestyle and the epidemiology of whooping cough. The contribution of metabolic models in this context will require the extension of the genome-scale metabolic model to integrate this regulatory dimension.

scholarly journals Drought Stress Responses in Context-Specific Genome-Scale Metabolic Models of Arabidopsis thaliana

Metabolites ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Ratklao Siriwach ◽  
Fumio Matsuda ◽  
Kentaro Yano ◽  
Masami Yokota Hirai
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
Drought Stress ◽  
Stress Responses ◽  
In Silico ◽  
Metabolic Model ◽  
Metabolic Reaction ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Balance Analysis ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Genome Scale

Drought perturbs metabolism in plants and limits their growth. Because drought stress on crops affects their yields, understanding the complex adaptation mechanisms evolved by plants against drought will facilitate the development of drought-tolerant crops for agricultural use. In this study, we examined the metabolic pathways of Arabidopsis thaliana which respond to drought stress by omics-based in silico analyses. We proposed an analysis pipeline to understand metabolism under specific conditions based on a genome-scale metabolic model (GEM). Context-specific GEMs under drought and well-watered control conditions were reconstructed using transcriptome data and examined using metabolome data. The metabolic fluxes throughout the metabolic network were estimated by flux balance analysis using the context-specific GEMs. We used in silico methods to identify an important reaction contributing to biomass production and clarified metabolic reaction responses under drought stress by comparative analysis between drought and control conditions. This proposed pipeline can be applied in other studies to understand metabolic changes under specific conditions using Arabidopsis GEM or other available plant GEMs.

scholarly journals Enhanced flux prediction by integrating relative expression and relative metabolite abundance into thermodynamically consistent metabolic models

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikash Pandey ◽  
Noushin Hadadi ◽  
Vassily Hatzimanikatis
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Data Integration ◽  
Differential Gene Expression ◽  
Omics Data ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Metabolomic Data ◽  
Differential Gene ◽  
Genome Scale ◽  
Differential Flux ◽  
Metabolite Abundance

AbstractThe ever-increasing availability of transcriptomic and metabolomic data can be used to deeply analyze and make ever-expanding predictions about biological processes, as changes in the reaction fluxes through genome-wide pathways can now be tracked. Currently, constraint-based metabolic modeling approaches, such as flux balance analysis (FBA), can quantify metabolic fluxes and make steady-state flux predictions on a genome-wide scale using optimization principles. However, relating the differential gene expression or differential metabolite abundances in different physiological states to the differential flux profiles remains a challenge. Here we present a novel method, named REMI (Relative Expression and Metabolomic Integrations), that employs genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) to translate differential gene expression and metabolite abundance data obtained through genetic or environmental perturbations into differential fluxes to analyze the altered physiology for any given pair of conditions. REMI is the first method that integrates thermodynamics together with relative gene-expression and metabolomic data as constraints for FBA. We applied REMI to integrate into the Escherichia coli GEM publicly available sets of expression and metabolomic data obtained from two independent studies and under wide-ranging conditions. The differential flux distributions obtained from REMI corresponding to the various perturbations better agreed with the measured fluxomic data, and thus better reflected the different physiological states, than a traditional model. Compared to the similar alternative method that provides one solution from the solution space, REMI was also able to enumerate several alternative flux profiles using a mixed-integer linear programming approach. Using this important advantage, we performed a high-frequency analysis of common genes and their associated reactions in the obtained alternative solutions and identified the most commonly regulated genes across any two given conditions. We illustrate that this new implementation provides more robust and biologically relevant results for a better understanding of the system physiology.Author SummaryThe recent advances in omics technologies have provided us with an unprecedented abundance of data spanning genomes, global gene expression, and metabolomes. Though these advancements in high-throughput data collection offer an excellent opportunity for a more thorough understanding of metabolic capacities of a wide range of species, they have caused a considerable gap between “data generation” and “data integration.” reconstructed model to predict the observed physiology, e.g., growth phase through omics data integration. In this study, we present a new method named REMI (Relative Expression and Metabolomic Integrations) that enables the co-integration of gene expression, metabolomics and thermodynamics data as constraints in genome-scale models. This not only allows the better understanding of how different phenotypes originate from a given genotype but also aid to understanding the interactions between different types of omics data.

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