Metabolic network reconstruction of Euglena gracilis: Current state, challenges, and applications

Abstract

A metabolic model, representing all biochemical reactions in a cell, is a prerequisite for several approaches in systems biology used to explore the metabolic phenotype of an organism. Despite the use of Euglena in diverse industrial applications and as a biological model, there is limited understanding of its metabolic network capacity. The unavailability of the completed genome data and the highly complex evolution of Euglena are significant obstacles to the reconstruction and analysis of its genome-scale metabolic model. In this mini-review, we discuss the current state and challenges of metabolic network reconstruction in Euglena gracilis. We have collated and present the available relevant data for the metabolic network reconstruction of E. gracilis, which could be used to improve the quality of the metabolic model of E. gracilis. Furthermore, we deliver the potential applications of the model in metabolic engineering. Altogether, it is supposed that this mini-review would facilitate the investigation of metabolic networks in Euglena and further lay out a direction for model-assisted metabolic engineering.

Keywords: Euglena gracilis; genome-scale metabolic model; metabolic flux analysis; metabolic network modelling; metabolic network reconstruction.

Figure 1

A schematic diagram representing the overview of this mini-review including steps of metabolic model reconstruction using genome data: (i) Draft reconstruction (ii) curation and refinement (iii) Validation of the model and challenges encountered when reconstructing the genome-scale model of Euglena gracilis. Potential applications of the network model are also discussed.