Metabolic modelling revealed source-sink interactions between four segments of Setaria viridis leaves

As in most plants, during their growth from immature to mature stages, the leaves of Setaria viridis, a model C₄ bioenergy plant, have differential growth rates from the base (immature or growing) to the tip (most mature). In this study, we constructed a multi-segment C₄ leaf metabolic model of S. viridis with two cell types (bundle sheath and mesophyll cells) across four leaf segments (base to tip). We incorporated differential growth rates for each leaf segment as constraints and integrated transcriptomic data as the objective function for our model simulation using flux balance analysis. The model was able to predict the exchanges of metabolites between immature and mature segments of the leaf and the distribution of the activities of biomass synthesis across those segments. Our model demonstrated the use of a modelling approach in studying the source-sink relationship within an organ and provided insights into the metabolic interactions across different parts of a leaf.