Background: A genome-scale metabolic network model (GEM) is a mathematical representation of an organism's metabolism. Today, GEMs are popular tools for computationally simulating the biotechnological processes and for predicting biochemical properties of (engineered) strains. Objectives: In the present study, we have evaluated the predictive power of two GEMs, namely iBsu1103 (for Bacillus subtilis 168) and iMZ1055 (for Bacillus megaterium WSH002). Materials and Methods: For comparing the predictive power of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus megaterium GEMs, experimental data were obtained from previous wet-lab studies included in PubMed. By using these data, we set the environmental, stoichiometric and thermodynamic constraints on the models, and FBA is performed to predict the biomass production rate, and the values of other fluxes. For simulating experimental conditions in this study, COBRA toolbox was used. Results: By using the wealth of data in the literature, we evaluated the accuracy of in silico simulations of these GEMs. Our results suggest that there are some errors in these two models which make them unreliable for predicting the biochemical capabilities of these species. The inconsistencies between experimental and computational data are even greater where B. subtilis and B. megaterium do not have similar phenotypes. Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that literature-based improvement of genome-scale metabolic network models of the two Bacillus species is essential if these models are to be successfully applied in biotechnology and metabolic engineering.

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An efficient and economic protocol for rapid in vitro propagation using nodal explants obtained from 2 year old, field grown medicinal plants of Plumbago zeylanica L. belonging to the family Plumbaginaceae was successfully achieved from the nodal segments. Shoot development was maximum (95%) on Murashige and Skoog's (MS) basal medium supplemented with 6-Benzyl amino purine (BAP) (2.0 mg/l), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) (1.5 mg/l) and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) (1.0 mg/l) with (19.56±0.04) mean number of shoots per explants and the maximum shoot length was found to be (4.98±0.87). Rooting of the differentiated shoots was achieved in MS medium with triple auxins combination of αnaphthalene acetic acid (NAA) (1.5 mg/l), IAA (1.5 mg/l) and IBA (2.0 mg/l) with (18.54±0.09) mean number of roots per shoots and the mean root length was found to be (7.63±0.83). Regenerated plantlets were successfully acclimated in the green house and after a hardening period of 4 weeks 100% transplantation success was achieved under the natural condition. The plantlets derived through in vitro propagation mimic the morphological characteristics of the donor plants taken for the present investigation.