PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Raajaraam, Lavanya
AU  - Raman, Karthik
TI  - A computational framework to identify metabolic engineering strategies for the co-production of metabolites
AID  - 10.1101/2021.09.18.460904
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.09.18.460904
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/10/03/2021.09.18.460904.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/10/03/2021.09.18.460904.full
AB  - Microbial production of chemicals is a more sustainable alternative to traditional chemical processes. However, the shift to bioprocess is usually accompanied by a drop in economic feasibility. Co-production of more than one chemical can improve the economy of bioprocesses, enhance carbon utilization and also ensure better exploitation of resources. While a number of tools exist for in silico metabolic engineering, there is a dearth of computational tools that can co-optimize the production of multiple metabolites. In this work, we propose an eXtended version of Flux Scanning based on Enforced Objective Flux (XFSEOF), identify intervention strategies to co-optimize for a set of metabolites. XFSEOF can be used to identify all pairs of products that can be co-optimized with ease, by a single intervention. Beyond this, it can also identify higher-order intervention strategies for a given set of metabolites. We have employed this tool on the genome-scale metabolic models of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and identified intervention targets that can co-optimize the production of pairs of metabolites under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic conditions were found to support the co-production of a higher number of metabolites when compared to aerobic conditions in both organisms. The proposed computational framework will enhance the ease of study of metabolite co-production and thereby aid the design of better bioprocesses.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.