Flux analysis of microbial metabolic pathways using a visual programming environment

This paper describes the use of a visual programming environment (LabVIEW) for the flux analysis of metabolic pathways. Representations of metabolic pathways are constructed in software from individual reaction elements (icons) which are linked together to indicate potential flux routes. Off-line bioprocess data are then used to supply the inputs and outputs to the metabolic pathway and the pathway fluxes are calculated. The metabolic system can be modelled at different levels of complexity and new pathways can be inserted into existing models. To illustrate this, flux analyses are performed on three Escherichia coli mutants with metabolic pathway deletions and insertions. The first analysis looks at organic acid production and the second at the effect of the presence in E. coli of an engineered pathway for toluene degradation.