In silico prediction of enhanced nutrient content in plants by metabolic modelling

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for identifying at least one metabolic conversion step, the modulation of which increases the amount of a metabolite of interest in a plant cell, plant or plant part, said method comprising establishing a stoichiometric network model for the metabolism of the plant cell, plant or plant part including the synthesis pathway for the metabolite of interest, identifying at least one candidate metabolic conversion step by applying at least one algorithm of Growth-coupled Design, and validating the at least one candidate metabolic conversion step by a constraint-based modeling approach in the stoichiometric network model, wherein an increase in the metabolite of interest occurring in said constraint-based modeling approach is indicative for a metabolic conversion step, the modulation of which increases the amount of the metabolite of interest in the plant cell, plant or plant part. The present invention further relates to a method for generating a plant cell, plant or plant part which produces an increased amount of a metabolite of interest when compared to a control, said method comprising identifying a metabolic conversion step, the modulation of which increases a metabolite of interest in a plant cell, plant or plant part, by the method for identifying a metabolic conversion step and modulating the said metabolic conversion step such that the amount of the metabolite of interest is increased in vivo in a plant cell, plant or plant part.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.