Stoichiometric growth model for riboflavin-producing Bacillus subtilis

Rate equations for measured extracellular rates and macromolecular composit ion data were combined with a stoichiometric model to describe riboflavin p roduction with an industrial Bacillus subtilis strain using errors in varia bles regression analysis. On the basis of this combined stoichiometric grow th model, we explored the topological features of the B. subtilis metabolic reaction network that was assembled from a large amount of literature, Mor e specifically, we simulated maximum theoretical yields of biomass and ribo flavin, including the associated flux regimes. Based on the developed model , the importance of experimental data on building block requirements for ma ximum yield and flux calculations were investigated. These analyses clearly show that verification of macromolecular composition data is important for optimum flux calculations. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.