Evolution and applications of genome-scale metabolic models in yeast systems biology studies

Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) can be used to simulate the metabolic network of an organism in a systematic and holistic way. Different yeast species, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae, have emerged as powerful cell factories for bioproduction. Recently, with the dedicated efforts from the scientific community, significant progress has been made in the development of yeast GEMs. Numerous versions of yeast GEMs and the derived multiscale models have been released, facilitating integrative omics analysis and rational strain design for different types of yeast cell factories. These advancements reflected the evolution and maturation of yeast GEMs together with a model ecosystem around them. This review will summarize the development and expansion of yeast GEMs and discuss their applications in yeast systems biology studies. It is anticipated that yeast GEMs will continue to play an increasingly important role in pioneering yeast physiological and metabolic studies in coming years.