Optimal cytoplasmatic density and flux balance model under macromolecular crowding effects

Macromolecules occupy between 34% and 44% of the cell cytoplasm, about half the maximum packing density of spheres in three dimension. Yet, there is no clear understanding of what is special about this value. To address this fundamental question we investigate the effect of macromolecular crowding on cell metabolism. We develop a cell scale flux balance model capturing the main features of cell metabolism at different nutrient uptakes and macromolecular densities. Using this model we show there are two metabolic regimes at low and high nutrient uptakes. The latter regime is characterized by an optimal cytoplasmatic density where the increase of reaction rates by confinement and the decrease by diffusion slow-down balance. More important, the predicted optimal density is in the range of the experimentally determined density of Escherichia coli.