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SYSTEMS BIOLOGY, MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, AND GENE REGULATION

Flux Balance Analysis of Barley Seeds: A Computational Approach to Study Systemic Properties of Central Metabolism^1,[W]

Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, 06466 Gatersleben, Germany (E.G.-B., F.S., D.K., B.H.J.); Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, 06099 Halle, Germany (F.S.); and Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences, 78120 Furtwangen, Germany (D.K.)

The accumulation of storage compounds is an important aspect of cereal seed metabolism. Due to the agronomical importance of the storage reserves of starch, protein, and oil, the understanding of storage metabolism is of scientific interest, with practical applications in agronomy and plant breeding. To get insight into storage patterning in developing cereal seed in response to environmental and genetic perturbation, a computational analysis of seed metabolism was performed. A metabolic network of primary metabolism in the developing endosperm of barley (Hordeum vulgare), a model plant for temperate cereals, was constructed that includes 257 biochemical and transport reactions across four different compartments. The model was subjected to flux balance analysis to study grain yield and metabolic flux distributions in response to oxygen depletion and enzyme deletion. In general, the simulation results were found to be in good agreement with the main biochemical properties of barley seed storage metabolism. The predicted growth rate and the active metabolic pathway patterns under anoxic, hypoxic, and aerobic conditions predicted by the model were in accordance with published experimental results. In addition, the model predictions gave insight into the potential role of inorganic pyrophosphate metabolism to maintain seed metabolism under oxygen deprivation.

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Eva Grafahrend-Belau (grafahr{at}ipk-gatersleben.de).

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.108.129635

^* Corresponding author; e-mail grafahr{at}ipk-gatersleben.de.

Received September 9, 2008; accepted October 30, 2008; published November 5, 2008.