Xin Zhao's research while affiliated with Chinese Academy of Sciences and other places

Constraint-based genome-scale metabolic network models (genome-scale metabolic models, GEMs) have been widely used to predict metabolic phenotypes. In addition to stoichiometric constraints, other constraints such as enzyme availability and thermodynamic feasibility may also limit the cellular phenotype solution space. Recently, extended GEM models considering either enzymatic or thermodynamic constraints have been developed to improve model prediction accuracy. This review summarizes the recent progresses on metabolic models with multiple constraints (MCGEMs). We presented the construction methods and various applications of MCGEMs including the simulation of gene knockout, prediction of biologically feasible pathways and identification of bottleneck steps. By integrating multiple constraints in a consistent modeling framework, MCGEMs can predict the metabolic bottlenecks and key controlling and modification targets for pathway optimization more precisely, and thus may provide more reliable design results to guide metabolic engineering of industrially important microorganisms.

Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) have been widely used for the phenotypic prediction of microorganisms. However, the lack of other constraints in the stoichiometric model often leads to a large metabolic solution space being inaccessible. Inspired by previous studies that take an allocation of macromolecule resources into account, we developed a simplified Python-based workflow for constructing enzymatic constrained metabolic network model (ECMpy) and constructed an enzyme-constrained model for Escherichia coli (eciML1515) by directly adding a total enzyme amount constraint in the latest version of GEM for E. coli (iML1515), considering the protein subunit composition in the reaction, and automated calibration of enzyme kinetic parameters. Using eciML1515, we predicted the overflow metabolism of E. coli and revealed that redox balance was the key reason for the difference between E. coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in overflow metabolism. The growth rate predictions on 24 single-carbon sources were improved significantly when compared with other enzyme-constrained models of E. coli. Finally, we revealed the tradeoff between enzyme usage efficiency and biomass yield by exploring the metabolic behaviours under different substrate consumption rates. Enzyme-constrained models can improve simulation accuracy and thus can predict cellular phenotypes under various genetic perturbations more precisely, providing reliable guidance for metabolic engineering.

Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) have been widely used for phenotypic prediction of microorganisms. However, the lack of other constraints in the stoichiometric model often leads to a large metabolic solution space inaccessible. Inspired by previous studies that take allocation of macromolecule resources into account, we developed a simplified Python-based workflow for constructing enzymatic constrained metabolic network model (ECMpy) and constructed an enzyme-constrained model for Escherichia coli (eciML1515) by directly adding a total enzyme amount constraint in the latest version of GEM for E. coli (iML1515), considering the protein subunit composition in the reaction, and automated calibration of enzyme kinetic parameters. Using eciML1515, we predicted the overflow metabolism of E. coli and revealed that redox balance was the key reason for the difference between E. coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in overflow metabolism. The growth rate predictions on 24 single-carbon sources were improved significantly when compared with other enzyme-constrained models of E. coli. Finally, we revealed the tradeoff between enzyme usage efficiency and biomass yield by exploring the metabolic behaviors under different substrate consumption rates. Enzyme-constrained models can improve simulation accuracy and thus can predict cellular phenotypes under various genetic perturbations more precisely, providing reliable guidance for metabolic engineering.

Stoichiometric genome-scale metabolic network models (GEMs) have been widely used to predict metabolic phenotypes. In addition to stoichiometric ratios, other constraints such as enzyme availability and thermodynamic feasibility can also limit the phenotype solution space. Extended GEM models considering either enzymatic or thermodynamic constraints have been shown to improve prediction accuracy. In this paper, we propose a novel method that integrates both enzymatic and thermodynamic constraints in a single Pyomo modeling framework (ETGEMs). We applied this method to construct the EcoETM (E. coli metabolic model with enzymatic and thermodynamic constraints). Using this model, we calculated the optimal pathways for cellular growth and the production of 22 metabolites. When comparing the results with those of iML1515 and models with one of the two constraints, we observed that many thermodynamically unfavorable and/or high enzyme cost pathways were excluded from EcoETM. For example, the synthesis pathway of carbamoyl-phosphate (Cbp) from iML1515 is both thermodynamically unfavorable and enzymatically costly. After introducing the new constraints, the production pathways and yields of several Cbp-derived products (e.g. L-arginine, orotate) calculated using EcoETM were more realistic. The results of this study demonstrate the great application potential of metabolic models with multiple constraints for pathway analysis and phenotype prediction.

Stoichiometric genome-scale metabolic network models (GEMs) have been widely used to predict metabolic phenotypes. In addition to stoichiometric ratios, other constraints such as enzyme availability and thermodynamic feasibility can also limit the phenotype solution space. Extended GEM models considering either enzymatic or thermodynamic constraints have been shown to improve prediction accuracy. In this paper, we propose a novel method that integrates both enzymatic and thermodynamic constraints in a single Pyomo modeling framework (ETGEMs). We applied this method to construct the EcoETM, the E. coli metabolic model iML1515 with enzymatic and thermodynamic constraints. Using this model, we calculated the optimal pathways for cellular growth and the production of 22 metabolites. When comparing the results with those of iML1515 and models with one of the two constraints, we observed that many thermodynamically unfavorable and/or high enzyme cost pathways were excluded from EcoETM. For example, the synthesis pathway of carbamoyl-phosphate (Cbp) from iML1515 is both thermodynamically unfavorable and enzymatically costly. After introducing the new constraints, the production pathways and yields of several Cbp-derived products (e.g. L-arginine, orotate) calculated using EcoETM were more realistic. The results of this study demonstrate the great application potential of metabolic models with multiple constraints for pathway analysis and phenotype predication.

Genome-scale metabolic network models have been successfully applied to guide metabolic engineering. However, the conventional flux balance analysis only considers stoichiometry and reaction direction constraints, and the simulation results cannot accurately describe certain phenomena such as overflow metabolism and diauxie growth on two substrates. Recently, researchers proposed new constraint-based methods to simulate the cellular behavior under different conditions more precisely by introducing new constraints such as limited enzyme content and thermodynamics feasibility. Here we review several enzyme-constrained models, giving a comprehensive introduction on the biological basis and mathematical representation for the enzyme constraint, the optimization function, the impact on the calculated flux distribution and their application in identification of metabolic engineering targets. The main problems in these existing methods and the perspectives on this emerging research field are also discussed. By introducing new constraints, metabolic network models can simulate and predict cellular behavior under various environmental and genetic perturbations more accurately, and thus can provide more reliable guidance to strain engineering.

The utilization of one-carbon (C1) assimilation pathways to produce chemicals and fuels from low-cost C1 compounds could greatly reduce the substrate-related production costs, and would also alleviate the pressure of the resource supply for bio-manufacturing. However, the natural C1 assimilation pathways normally involve ATP consumption or the loss of carbon resources as CO2, resulting in low product yields, making the design of novel pathways highly pertinent. Here we present several new ATP-independent and carbon-conserving C1 assimilation cycles with 100% theoretical carbon yield, which were discovered by computational analysis of metabolic reaction set with 6578 natural reactions from MetaCyc database and 73 computationally predicted aldolase reactions from ATLAS database. Then, kinetic evaluation of these cycles was conducted and the cycles without kinetic traps were chosen for further experimental verification. Finally, we used the two engineered enzymes Gals and TalBF178Y for the artificial reactions to construct a novel C1 assimilation pathway in vitro and optimized the pathway to achieve 88% carbon yield. These results demonstrate the usefulness of computational design in finding novel metabolic pathways for the efficient utilization of C1 compounds and shedding light on other promising pathways.