TY - JOUR A1 - Steuer, Ralf A1 - Gross, Thilo A1 - Selbig, Joachim A1 - Blasius, Bernd T1 - Structural kinetic modeling of metabolic networks JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America N2 - To develop and investigate detailed mathematical models of metabolic processes is one of the primary challenges in systems biology. However, despite considerable advance in the topological analysis of metabolic networks, kinetic modeling is still often severely hampered by inadequate knowledge of the enzyme-kinetic rate laws and their associated parameter values. Here we propose a method that aims to give a quantitative account of the dynamical capabilities of a metabolic system, without requiring any explicit information about the functional form of the rate equations. Our approach is based on constructing a local linear model at each point in parameter space, such that each element of the model is either directly experimentally accessible or amenable to a straightforward biochemical interpretation. This ensemble of local linear models, encompassing all possible explicit kinetic models, then allows for a statistical exploration of the comprehensive parameter space. The method is exemplified on two paradigmatic metabolic systems: the glycolytic pathway of yeast and a realistic-scale representation of the photosynthetic Calvin cycle. KW - systems biology KW - computational biochemistry KW - metabolomics KW - metabolic regulation KW - biological robustness Y1 - 2006 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0600013103 SN - 0027-8424 SN - 1091-6490 VL - 103 IS - 32 SP - 11868 EP - 11873 PB - National Academy of Sciences CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kartal, Oender A1 - Mahlow, Sebastian A1 - Skupin, Alexander A1 - Ebenhoeh, Oliver T1 - Carbohydrate-active enzymes exemplify entropic principles in metabolism JF - Molecular systems biology N2 - Glycans comprise ubiquitous and essential biopolymers, which usually occur as highly diverse mixtures. The myriad different structures are generated by a limited number of carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes), which are unusual in that they catalyze multiple reactions by being relatively unspecific with respect to substrate size. Existing experimental and theoretical descriptions of CAZyme-mediated reaction systems neither comprehensively explain observed action patterns nor suggest biological functions of polydisperse pools in metabolism. Here, we overcome these limitations with a novel theoretical description of this important class of biological systems in which the mixing entropy of polydisperse pools emerges as an important system variable. In vitro assays of three CAZymes essential for central carbon metabolism confirm the power of our approach to predict equilibrium distributions and non-equilibrium dynamics. A computational study of the turnover of the soluble heteroglycan pool exemplifies how entropy-driven reactions establish a metabolic buffer in vivo that attenuates fluctuations in carbohydrate availability. We argue that this interplay between energy- and entropy-driven processes represents an important regulatory design principle of metabolic systems. KW - energy metabolism KW - entropic enzymes KW - glycobiology KW - metabolic regulation Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2011.76 SN - 1744-4292 VL - 7 IS - 10 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Araujo, Wagner L. A1 - Nunes-Nesi, Adriano A1 - Nikoloski, Zoran A1 - Sweetlove, Lee J. A1 - Fernie, Alisdair R. T1 - Metabolic control and regulation of the tricarboxylic acid cycle in photosynthetic and heterotrophic plant tissues JF - Plant, cell & environment : cell physiology, whole-plant physiology, community physiology N2 - The tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle is a crucial component of respiratory metabolism in both photosynthetic and heterotrophic plant organs. All of the major genes of the tomato TCA cycle have been cloned recently, allowing the generation of a suite of transgenic plants in which the majority of the enzymes in the pathway are progressively decreased. Investigations of these plants have provided an almost complete view of the distribution of control in this important pathway. Our studies suggest that citrate synthase, aconitase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, succinyl CoA ligase, succinate dehydrogenase, fumarase and malate dehydrogenase have control coefficients flux for respiration of -0.4, 0.964, -0.123, 0.0008, 0.289, 0.601 and 1.76, respectively; while 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase is estimated to have a control coefficient of 0.786 in potato tubers. These results thus indicate that the control of this pathway is distributed among malate dehydrogenase, aconitase, fumarase, succinate dehydrogenase and 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase. The unusual distribution of control estimated here is consistent with specific non-cyclic flux mode and cytosolic bypasses that operate in illuminated leaves. These observations are discussed in the context of known regulatory properties of the enzymes and some illustrative examples of how the pathway responds to environmental change are given. KW - metabolic control analysis KW - metabolic regulation KW - respiration KW - Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) KW - TCA cycle Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3040.2011.02332.x SN - 0140-7791 VL - 35 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 21 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER -