title: Observability of Plant Metabolic Networks Is Reflected in the Correlation of Metabolic Profiles.
abstract: Understanding whether the functionality of a biological system can be characterized by measuring few selected components is key to targeted phenotyping techniques in systems biology. Methods from observability theory have proven useful in identifying sensor components that have to be measured to obtain information about the entire system. Yet, the extent to which the data profiles reflect the role of components in the observability of the system remains unexplored. Here we first identify the sensor metabolites in the model plant Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) by employing state-of-the-art genome-scale metabolic networks. By using metabolic data profiles from a set of seven environmental perturbations as well as from natural variability, we demonstrate that the data profiles of sensor metabolites are more correlated than those of nonsensor metabolites. This pattern was confirmed with in silico generated metabolic profiles from a medium-size kinetic model of plant central carbon metabolism. Altogether, due to the small number of identified sensors, our study implies that targeted metabolite analyses may provide the vast majority of relevant information about plant metabolic systems.
authors: Systems Biology and Mathematical Modeling Group (K.S., A.K., Z.N.) and Central Metabolism Group (K.S., A.R.F.), Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany;Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616 (D.J.K.); andDynaMo Center of Excellence, University of Copenhagen, DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark (D.J.K.).
authors: Kevin
authors: K
authors: Schwahn
authors: Systems Biology and Mathematical Modeling Group (K.S., A.K., Z.N.) and Central Metabolism Group (K.S., A.R.F.), Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany;Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616 (D.J.K.); andDynaMo Center of Excellence, University of Copenhagen, DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark (D.J.K.).
authors: Anika
authors: 0000-0003-1367-0719
authors: A
authors: Küken
authors: Systems Biology and Mathematical Modeling Group (K.S., A.K., Z.N.) and Central Metabolism Group (K.S., A.R.F.), Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany;Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616 (D.J.K.); andDynaMo Center of Excellence, University of Copenhagen, DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark (D.J.K.).
authors: Daniel J
authors: 0000-0001-5759-3175
authors: DJ
authors: Kliebenstein
authors: Systems Biology and Mathematical Modeling Group (K.S., A.K., Z.N.) and Central Metabolism Group (K.S., A.R.F.), Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany;Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616 (D.J.K.); andDynaMo Center of Excellence, University of Copenhagen, DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark (D.J.K.).
authors: Alisdair R
authors: AR
authors: Fernie
authors: Systems Biology and Mathematical Modeling Group (K.S., A.K., Z.N.) and Central Metabolism Group (K.S., A.R.F.), Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany;Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616 (D.J.K.); andDynaMo Center of Excellence, University of Copenhagen, DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark (D.J.K.) nikoloski@mpimp-golm.mpg.de.
authors: Zoran
authors: 0000-0003-2671-6763
authors: Z
authors: Nikoloski
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003198:Computer Simulation; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways / Q000235:genetics*; D055442:Metabolome / Q000235:genetics*; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008954:Models, Biological