Team:UMaryland/Modeling
Kinetic modeling is increasingly being employed to help predict or make educated decisions about how alterations in the concentration of a particular enzyme or substrate in a pathway will impact the production level of products. As part of our lutein project we are developing a MATLAB model of the kinetic pathway used for the biosynthesis of carotenoids. In E coli, the endogenous non-mevalonate pathway produces precursor molecule Garenyl Diphosphate (GPP). After this, exogenous genes cloned into the bacteria produce a series of precursors as illustrated below.(we will put a picture here.). The pathway was modeled using Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics assuming a steady state flux.
Kinetic parameters were obtained from the BRENDA enzyme database. there is no or only partial kinetic data available for some of the reactions in this pathway. Due to the lack of data our goal was do develop a framework which could used along with experimental data to construct an accurate model of carotenoid biosynthesis. Our aim is to use such a model to refine the production of specific products within the pathway by understanding how tuning different expression of different enzymes will impact the ratio and concentration of final products. Specifically, how tuning these enzymes will allow us to maximize alpha carotene production while minimizing unwanted derivatives.