Matuszynska, A. B. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2022

Bioenergetics of the secondary metabolites production in photosynthetic glandular trichomes

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. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/510054v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (9K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@2ec6f4org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@107d0c1org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1a545corg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@98747b_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG Please check the journals author guidelines for whether a graphical abstract, key points, new findings, or other items are required for display in the Table of Contents.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Constructing and analysing dynamic models withn modelbasev1.0 - a software update

BackgroundComputational mathematical models of biological and biomedical systems have been successfully applied to advance our understanding of various regulatory processes, metabolic fluxes, effects of drug therapies and disease evolution or transmission. Unfortunately, despite community efforts leading to the development of SBML or the BioModels database, many published models have not been fully exploited, largely due to lack of proper documentation or the dependence on proprietary software. To facilitate synergies within the emerging research fields of systems biology and medicine by reusing and further developing existing models, an open-source toolbox that makes the overall process of model construction more consistent, understandable, transparent and reproducible is desired. Results and DiscussionWe provide here the update on the development of modelbase, a free expandable Python package for constructing and analysing ordinary differential equation-based mathematical models of dynamic systems. It provides intuitive and unified methods to construct and solve these systems. Significantly expanded visualisation methods allow convenient analyses of structural and dynamic properties of the models. Specifying reaction stoichiometries and rate equations, the system of differential equations is assembled automatically. A newly provided library of common kinetic rate laws highly reduces the repetitiveness of the computer programming code, and provides full SBML compatibility. Previous versions provided functions for automatic construction of networks for isotope labelling studies. Using user-provided label maps, modelbase v1.0 streamlines the expansion of classic models to their isotope-specific versions. Finally, the library of previously published models implemented in modelbase is continuously growing. Ranging from photosynthesis over tumour cell growth to viral infection evolution, all models are available now in a transparent, reusable and unified format using modelbase. ConclusionWith the small price of learning a new software package, which is written in Python, currently one of the most popular programming languages, the user can develop new models and actively profit from the work of others, repeating and reproducing models in a consistent, tractable and expandable manner. Moreover, the expansion of models to their label specific versions enables simulating label propagation, thus providing quantitative information regarding network topology and metabolic fluxes.

systems biology↗