REDESIGNING METABOLIC NETWORKS USING MATHEMATICAL-PROGRAMMING

The design of new generation bioprocessing plants is increasingly depe ndent on the design of process-compatible microorganisms. The latter, whether through genetic or physiological manipulations, can be greatly assisted by metabolic engineering. An emerging powerful tool in metab olic engineering research is computer-assisted cell design using mathe matical programming. In this work, the problem of optimizing cellular metabolic networks has been formulated as a Mixed Integer Nonlinear Pr ogramming (MINLP) model. The model can assist genetic engineers to ide ntify which cellular enzymes should be modified, and the new levels of activity required to produce an optimal network, Results are presente d from the tricarboxylic acid cycle in Dictyostelium discoideum. (C) 1 998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.