Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 3: Statistical Physics of Biological Systems I (with DY)

BP 3.12: Talk

Monday, March 26, 2012, 12:30–12:45, MA 001

A Statistical Analysis of Production in Cells: Flux Distributions, Enzyme Time Scales and Metabolic Network Properties — •Moritz E. Beber and Marc-Thorsten Hütt — School of Engineering and Science, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany

Numerous studies have addressed statistical properties of metabolic systems, both from the perspective of network structure and of dynamical systems. On a genome-wide scale, the considered dynamics were usually metabolic fluxes, i.e., material flow through biochemical reactions, either measured in vivo or computed using flux-balance analysis as a proxy for real behaviour.

In this study, we revisit and modify some of the existing results linking topology and dynamics: (1) We integrate timing information about the principal agents of catalysation of biochemical reactions, the enzymes, in a new way. (2) We carefully analyse the interplay of different network properties and re-compute metabolic network motifs, taking into account the fact that metabolic networks are bipartite, modular, layered, and contain different categories of bidirectional links. (3) Using a minimal model of evolved flow networks as a guideline, we explore, which network properties are correlated with metabolic robustness.

Our object of study is the metabolism of Escherichia coli. We use a manually curated metabolic network for topological information, a realistic model of its metabolism for flux balance analysis sampling diverse environmental conditions, and information on the mechanics of enzymes from a specialised database.