OpenMebius: An open source software for isotopically nonstationary 13C-based metabolic flux analysis

Abstract

The in vivo measurement of metabolic flux by 13C-based metabolic flux analysis (13C-MFA) provides valuable information regarding cell physiology. Bioinformatics tools have been developed to estimate metabolic flux distributions from the results of tracer isotopic labeling experiments using a 13C-labeled carbon source. Metabolic flux is determined by nonlinear fitting of a metabolic model to the isotopic labeling enrichment of intracellular metabolites measured by mass spectrometry. Whereas 13C-MFA is conventionally performed under isotopically constant conditions, isotopically nonstationary 13C metabolic flux analysis (INST-13C-MFA) has recently been developed for flux analysis of cells with photosynthetic activity and cells at a quasi-steady metabolic state (e.g., primary cells or microorganisms under stationary phase). Here, the development of a novel open source software for INST-13C-MFA on the Windows platform is reported. OpenMebius (Open source software for Metabolic flux analysis) provides the function of autogenerating metabolic models for simulating isotopic labeling enrichment from a user-defined configuration worksheet. Analysis using simulated data demonstrated the applicability of OpenMebius for INST-13C-MFA. Confidence intervals determined by INST-13C-MFA were less than those determined by conventional methods, indicating the potential of INST-13C-MFA for precise metabolic flux analysis. OpenMebius is the open source software for the general application of INST-13C-MFA. © 2014 Shuichi Kajihata et al.