Metabolic network analysis of lysine producing Corynebacterium glutamicum at a miniaturized scale

We present a straightforward approach comprising (13)C tracer experiments at 200-microL volume in 96-well microtiter plates with on-line measurement of dissolved oxygen for quantitative high-throughput metabolic network analysis at a miniaturized scale. This method was successfully applied for cultivation and (13)C metabolic flux analysis of two mutants of lysine producing Corynebacterium glutamicum (ATCC 13287 and ATCC 21543). Microtiter-plate cultivations showed excellent accordance in kinetics and stoichiometry of growth and product formation as well as in intracellular flux distributions as compared with parallel shake-flask experiments. These cultivations further allowed clear identification of strain-specific flux differences such as increased flux toward lysine, increased flux through the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), decreased flux through the tricarboxylic (TCA) cycle, and increased dihydroxyacetone formation in C. glutamicum ATCC 21543 compared with ATCC 13287. The present approach has strong potential for broad quantitative screening of metabolic network activities, especially those involving high-cost tracer substrates.