Team:Heidelberg/Templates/Modelling/Ind-Production

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Challenge

A challenge we had to face during the characterization and optimization of indC was to identify the production kinetics of Indigoidine. In order to disentangle the underlying mechanisms of bacterial growth and peptide synthesis, we decided to set up a mathematical model based on coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Calibrated with our experimental time-resolved data, the mathematical model could potentially not only elucidate how Indigoidine production influences growth of bacteria but also provide a more quantitative understanding of the synthesis efficiency of the different T domains and PPTases that were tested.

Approach

First, we set up a mind model based on the fact that Indigoidine is produced from Glutamine (Glu) that is cyclized (cGlu) , and our observation that Indigoidine-producing bacteria grow slower than mock controls. Those hypotheses resulted in a general model scheme depicting the interdependency between Indigoidine synthesis and bacterial growth (Fig. 1). With the mathematical model we could then validate whether there is indeed a negative feedback from the Indigoidine production to the growth of bacteria.

Since we had already established our quantitative Indigoidine production assay (see Tag-Optimization) in a time-dependent manner, we wanted to further exploit these experimental data via quantitative dynamic modeling. The change of bacteria and Indigoidine with time was measured via optical density of the liquid cultures in a 96-well plate of a TECAN reader and can be described in ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The ODEs contain parameters that characterize e.g. growth or synthesis rates for bacteria or Indigoidine, respectively.

Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs)

But how to find proper equations for bacterial growth and indigoidine synthesis? We adapted our ODE for bacterial growth from equation (7) of Kenneth and Kamau, 1993 . The ODE system determining the time evolution of the dynamical variables is given by the following four equations:

$$ \mathrm{d}\mathrm{[Bac]}/\mathrm{d}t = -\frac{\mathrm{[Bac]} \cdot \left(\mathrm{[Bac]} - \mathrm{Bacmax\_native\_svp}\right) \cdot \left(\mathrm{beta\_native\_svp} - \mathrm{[Ind]} \cdot \mathrm{ki\_native\_svp}\right)}{\mathrm{Bacmax\_native\_svp}} $$ $$\mathrm{d}\mathrm{[Glu]}/\mathrm{d}t = - \mathrm{[Bac]} \cdot \mathrm{[Glu]} \cdot \mathrm{ksyn\_native\_svp} $$ $$\mathrm{d}\mathrm{[cGlu]}/\mathrm{d}t = - \mathrm{kdim\_native\_svp} \cdot {\mathrm{[cGlu]}}^2 - \mathrm{kdegg\_native\_svp} \cdot \mathrm{[cGlu]} + \mathrm{[Bac]} \cdot \mathrm{[Glu]} \cdot \mathrm{ksyn\_native\_svp} $$ $$\mathrm{d}\mathrm{[Ind]}/\mathrm{d}t = {\mathrm{[cGlu]}}^2 \cdot \mathrm{kdim\_native\_svp} - \mathrm{[Ind]} \cdot \mathrm{kdegi\_native\_svp} $$

Framework

Those parameters have to be estimated from experimental data. In order to implement our mathematical model and the wetlab data, we used an open-source software package allowing for comprehensive analysis (D2D Software). With this framework, we were able to calibrate the model Mathematical modelling allows for Identifiability analysis

Results

Conclusion and Outlook