Environment-coupled models of leaf metabolism

Abstract

The plant leaf is the main site of photosynthesis. This process converts light energy and inorganic nutrients into chemical energy and organic building blocks for the biosynthesis and maintenance of cellular components and to support the growth of the rest of the plant. The leaf is also the site of gas–water exchange and due to its large surface, it is particularly vulnerable to pathogen attacks. Therefore, the leaf's performance and metabolic modes are inherently determined by its interaction with the environment. Mathematical models of plant metabolism have been successfully applied to study various aspects of photosynthesis, carbon and nitrogen assimilation and metabolism, aided suggesting metabolic intervention strategies for optimized leaf performance, and gave us insights into evolutionary drivers of plant metabolism in various environments. With the increasing pressure to improve agricultural performance in current and future climates, these models have become important tools to improve our understanding of plant–environment interactions and to propel plant breeders efforts. This overview article reviews applications of large-scale metabolic models of leaf metabolism to study plant–environment interactions by means of flux-balance analysis. The presented studies are organized in two ways — by the way the environment interactions are modelled — via external constraints or data-integration and by the studied environmental interactions — abiotic or biotic.

Whither metabolic flux analysis in plants?

“…The stoichiometric structure of a metabolic network can be used as the basis for a multitude of modelling strategies ( Suthers et al , 2021 ), and the simulation of the fluxes through plant metabolic networks using constraints-based flux balance analysis (FBA) has emerged as a powerful alternative to measuring fluxes ( Töpfer, 2021 ; Tong et al , 2021 ). In outline, FBA enables the prediction of the flux distributions within a network that permit the conversion of substrates to products under specified conditions.…”

Nyctinastic movement in legumes: Developmental mechanisms, factors and biological significance

“…Leaves are the main sites for photosynthesis and transpiration in plants and play crucial roles in light absorption, gas exchange, and water evaporation (Topfer, 2021; Xu et al, 2019). In addition, some plant species exhibit leaf movement capabilities, attracting scientists for centuries.…”

Advances in flux balance analysis by integrating machine learning and mechanism-based models

“…In the past two decades, genome-scale metabolic modeling has rapidly advanced in terms of number and quality of available network reconstructions as well as modeling approaches based on flux balance analysis (FBA). FBA approaches have been applied to study microbial [1] , [2] , [3] , human [4] , [5] , and plant metabolic networks [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] and aided, for instance, designing microbial strains for optimized compound production [11] , [12] , understanding human diseases [13] , [14] , [15] , and elucidating constraints in plant metabolism [16] , [17] , [18] . Recent developments enable the study of interacting systems such as the human gut microbiome [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] or tissues and cell types in humans [4] , [13] , [23] , [24] and plants [25] , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] .…”