Development of a metabolic network design and optimization framework incorporating implementation constraints: a...

We have developed a pathway design and optimization scheme that accommodates genetically and/or environmentally derived operational constraints. We express the full set of theoretically optimal pathways in terms of the underlying elementary flux modes and then examine the sensitivity of the optimal yield to a wide class of physiological perturbations. Though the scheme is general it is best appreciated in a concrete context: we here take succinate production as our model system. The scheme produces novel pathway designs and leads to the construction of optimal succinate production pathway networks. The model predictions compare very favorably with experimental observations.