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Methods and advances in metabolic flux analysis: a mini-review

  • Systems Biotechnology
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) is one of the pillars of metabolic engineering. Over the past three decades, it has been widely used to quantify intracellular metabolic fluxes in both native (wild type) and engineered biological systems. Through MFA, changes in metabolic pathway fluxes are quantified that result from genetic and/or environmental interventions. This information, in turn, provides insights into the regulation of metabolic pathways and may suggest new targets for further metabolic engineering of the strains. In this mini-review, we discuss and classify the various methods of MFA that have been developed, which include stoichiometric MFA, 13C metabolic flux analysis, isotopic non-stationary 13C metabolic flux analysis, dynamic metabolic flux analysis, and 13C dynamic metabolic flux analysis. For each method, we discuss key advantages and limitations and conclude by highlighting important recent advances in flux analysis approaches.

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Abbreviations

MFA:

Metabolic flux analysis

DMFA:

Dynamic metabolic flux analysis

13C-MFA:

13C-metabolic flux analysis

13C-DMFA:

13C dynamic metabolic flux analysis

13C-NMFA:

Isotopic non-stationary 13C-metabolic flux analysis

SSR:

Variance-weighted sum of squared residuals

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by NSF MCB-1120684 grant.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Metabolic Engineering and Systems Biology Laboratory, University of Delaware, 150 Academy St, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Maciek R. Antoniewicz

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Special Issue: Metabolic Engineering.

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Antoniewicz, M.R. Methods and advances in metabolic flux analysis: a mini-review. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 42, 317–325 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-015-1585-x

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