[Calculation of the minimal substrate expenditures for energy metabolism in microorganisms]

The paper presents a method for calculating the minimal expenses of substrates from the medium necessary to compensate energy donor disbalances in an intracellular process under study (for instance, in the production of a unit biomass or in the synthesis of one mole of monomer) between the number of regeneration events and the number of events in which each energy donor is utilized. The method employs the performance tables of energetic processes and is based on linear programming method. The paper includes the performance tables RE, RU and RS describing the stoichiometry of energetic processes in Escherichia coli, and the results of calculation for the cases of E. coli growth on glucose and acetate as sources of carbon.