Metabolic flux profiling of Escherichia coli mutants in central carbon metabolism using GC-MS Eliane Fischer and Uwe Sauer Institute of Biotechnology, ETH Zu ¨ rich, Zu ¨ rich, Switzerland We describe here a novel methodology for rapid diagnosis of metabolic changes, which is based on probabilistic equations that relate GC-MS-derived mass distributions in proteino- genic amino acids to in vivo enzyme activities. This metabolic flux ratio analysis by GC-MS provides a comprehensive perspective on central metabolism by quantifying 14 ratios of fluxes through converging pathways and reactions from [1- 13 C] and [U- 13 C]glucose experiments. Reliability and accuracy of this method were experimentally verified by successfully capturing expected flux responses of Escherichia coli to environmental modifications and seven knockout mutations in all major pathways of central metabolism. Furthermore, several mutants exhibited additional, unex- pected flux responses that provide new insights into the behavior of the metabolic network in its entirety. Most prominently, the low in vivo activity of the Entner– Doudoroff pathway in wild-type E. coli increased up to a contribution of 30% to glucose catabolism in mutants of glycolysis and TCA cycle. Moreover, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase mutants catabolized glucose not exclusively via glycolysis, suggesting a yet unidentified bypass of this reaction. Although strongly affected by environmental conditions, a stable balance between anaplerotic and TCA cycle flux was maintained by all mutants in the upper part of metabolism. Overall, our results provide quantitative insight into flux changes that bring about the resilience of metabolic networks to disruption. Keywords: Entner–Doudoroff pathway; flux analysis; fluxome; METAFoR analysis; pentose phosphate path- way. Comprehensive and quantitative understanding of bio- chemical reaction networks requires not only knowledge about their constituting components, but also information about the behavior of the network in its entirety. Toward this end, systems-oriented methodologies were developed that simultaneously access the level of reaction intermedi- ates [1] or rates of reactions [2–5], also referred to as the metabolome [6] and the fluxome [7], respectively. The most important property of biochemical networks are the per se nonmeasurable in vivo reaction rates, which may be estimated by so-called metabolic flux analysis that provides a holistic perspective on metabolism. In its simplest form, metabolic flux analysis relies on flux balancing of extracellular consumption and secretion rates within a stoichiometric reaction model [5]. To increase reliability and resolution of such flux balancing analyses, additional information may be derived from 13 C-labeling experiments. In this approach, 13 C-labeled substrates are administered and 13 C-labeled products of metabolism are analyzed by methods that distinguish between different isotope labeling patterns, in particular NMR and MS [2,3,8]. In the most advanced methodology, a comprehen- sive isotope isomer (isotopomer) model of metabolism is used to map metabolic fluxes in an iterative fitting procedure on the isotopomer pattern of network metabolites that are deduced from NMR or MS data [2]. This global data interpretation enables integrated and quantitative consid- eration of all physiological and 13 C-labeling data. Typically, protein hydrolysates are subjected to NMR or GC-MS analysis, which provides not only isotopomer pattern of the amino acids but also of their related precursor molecules that are key components of central metabolism. With the presently available models and software, these isotopomer balancing methods have attained a high level of precision and applicability [2,9,10]. In contrast to isotopomer balancing, direct analytical interpretation of 13 C-labeling patterns has long been used not only to identify biochemical pathways and reactions but also to quantify individual flux partitioning ratios [3,11,12]. Such analytically deduced flux ratios were also used successfully as constraints for metabolic flux analysis [13–15]. Based on probabilistic equations, a more general methodology was developed to simultaneously identify network topology and multiple flux partitioning ratios [16,17]. This metabolic flux ratio analysis was based on the detection of 13 C-labeling patterns in proteinogenic amino acids by NMR analysis, and provides direct evidence for a particular flux. Global isotopic data interpretation by isotopomer balancing and strictly local metabolic flux ratio analysis are largely independent. Correspondence to U. Sauer, Institute of Biotechnology, ETH Zu ¨ rich, CH-8093 Zu ¨ rich, Switzerland. Fax: + 41 1 633 10 51, Tel.: + 41 1 633 36 72, E-mail: sauer@biotech.biol.ethz.ch Abbreviations: MDV, mass distribution vector; G6P, glucose- 6-phosphate; F6P, fructose-6-phosphate; P5P, pentose phosphates; E4P, erythrose-4-phosphate; PEP, phosphoenolpyruvate; OAA, oxaloacetate; OGA, 2-oxoglutarate; PTS, phosphoenol pyruvate:glucose phosphotransferase system; PP pathway, pentose phosphate pathway; ED pathway, Entner–Doudoroff pathway; TCA cycle, tricarboxylic acid cycle; CDW, cellular dry weight. (Received 29 August 2002, revised 10 December 2002, accepted 7 January 2003) Eur. J. Biochem. 270, 880–891 (2003) Ó FEBS 2003 doi:10.1046/j.1432-1033.2003.03448.x Hence, the favorable agreement of results obtained by both approaches for the same experimental data provides strong evidence for their reliability [18,19]. Here we develop a novel methodology for metabolic flux ratio analysis based on GC-MS data from [1- 13 C] and [U- 13 C]glucose experiments. This methodology is used for metabolic network analysis in Escherichia coli strains with knockout mutations in all major pathways of central carbon metabolism. The analyses presented here provide not only novel insights into central metabolism but represent also experimental verification of the reliability of metabolic flux ratio analysis by GC-MS. Materials and methods Strains, media, and growth conditions The nomenclature of the employed E. coli knockout mutants indicates the affected genes (Table 1). Unless indicated otherwise, aerobic batch cultures were grown at 37 °C in 500 mL baffled shake flasks with 50 mL of M9 minimal medium on a gyratory shaker at 200 r.p.m. Anaerobic cultures were grown in 100 mL sealed glass flasks containing 50 mL medium that was gassed with N 2 prior to sterilization for 10 min. The M9 medium contained per litre of deionized water: 0.8 g NH 4 Cl, 0.5 g NaCl, 7.52 g Na 2 HPO 4 ,and3.0gKH 2 PO 4 . The following components were sterilized separately and then added (per litre of final medium): 2 mL of 1 M MgSO 4 ,1 mLof0.1 M CaCl 2 ,1 mL of 1 mgÆL )1 thiamine HCl (filter sterilized), and 10 mL of a trace element solution containing (per litre) 16.67 g FeCl 3 Æ6H 2 O, 0.18 g ZnSO 4 Æ7H 2 O, 0.12 g CuCl 2 Æ2H 2 O, 0.12 g MnSO 4 ÆH 2 O, 0.18 g CoCl 2 Æ6H 2 O, and 22.25 g Na 2 EDTAÆ2H 2 O. Filter-sterilized glucose was added to a final concentration of 3 g per litre. For 13 C-labeling experiments, glucose was added either entirely as the [1- 13 C] labeled isotope isomer (> 99%; Euriso-top, GIF- sur-Yvette, France) or as a mixture of 20% (w/w) [U- 13 C] ( 13 C, > 98%; Isotech, Miamisburg, OH) and 80% (w/w) natural glucose. The 13 C-enrichment of [U- 13 C]glucose was independently determined to be 98.7% from cells grown exclusively on [U- 13 C]glucose. Analytical procedures and physiological parameters Cell growth was monitored by measuring the optical density at 600 nm (D 600 ). Glucose concentrations were determined enzymatically using a commercial kit (Beckman, Palo Alto, CA, USA). The following physiological parameters were determined during the exponential growth phase in batch cultures as described previously [7]: Maximum growth rate, biomass yield on glucose, and specific glucose consumption rate, using a predetermined correlation factor of 0.44 g cellular dry weight (CDW) per D 600 unit. Sample preparation and GC-MS measurements Aliquots of batch cultures were harvested during the mid- exponential growth-phase, defined as D 600 of 0.8–1.5, and centrifuged at 14 000 g at room temp. for 5 min. Pellets were washed once in 1 mL 0.9% (w/v) NaCl and hydro- lyzed in 1.5 mL 6 M HCl at 105 °Cfor24hinsealedglass tubes. The hydrolysate was dried in a vacuum centrifuge at room temperature and derivatized at 85 °Cin50lL tetrahydrofurane (Fluka, Switzerland) and 50 lLof N-(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)-N-methyl-trifluoroacetamide (Fluka, Switzerland) for 60 min [20]. 1 lL of derivatized sample was injected into a series 8000 GC, combined with an MD 800 mass spectrometer (Fisons Instruments, Beverly, MA, USA), on a SPB-1 column (SUPELCO, 30 m · 0.32 mm · 0.25 lm fused silica) with a split injection of 1 : 20. GC conditions were: carrier gas (helium) flow rate at 2 mL per min, oven temperature programmed from 150 °C(2min)to280°Cat3°Cper min, source temperature at 200 °C and interface tempera- ture at 250 °C. Electron impact (EI) spectra were obtained at )70 eV. GC-MS raw data were analyzed using the software package MassLab (Fisons), avoiding detector overload and isotope fractionation as described [20]. The amino acids analyzed by GC-MS were aspartate, glutamate, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, phenyl- alanine, proline, serine, threonine, tyrosine, and valine for [U- 13 C]glucose experiments and aspartate, isoleucine, leu- cine, phenylalanine, serine, threonine, tyrosine, and valine for [1- 13 C] experiments. Bioreaction network The considered E. coli bioreaction network was described previously [18] but included additionally the ED pathway [21] and threonine aldolase [22] (Fig. 1). The amino-acid- carbon skeletons were derived from the metabolic inter- mediates PEP, Pyruvate, P5P, E4P, OAA, and OGA as described [16]. Table 1. E. coli strains used in this study. The original strain designation is given in parentheses. Strains Relevant characteristics Reference MG1655 Wild-type K12 strain (k – F – rph-1) [44] W3110 Wild-type K12 strain (k – F – IN(rrnD-rrnE)1 rph-1) [44] JM101 [F – traD36 lacI q D(lacZ)M15 proA + B + supE thi D(lac-proAB)] [45] Zwf G6P dehydrogenase-deficient K10 (DF2001) [46] Pgi Phosphoglucose isomerase-deficient W3110 (LJ110) [47] PfkA Phosphofructokinase-deficient K10 (AM1) [48] PykAF Pyruvate kinase-deficient JM101 (PB25) [49] Mae/Pck Malic enzymes (ScfA and Mae)- and PEP carboxykinase-deficient K12 (EJ1321) [50] SdhA/Mdh Succinate dehydrogenase- and malate dehydrogenase-deficient MG1655 (DL323) [29] FumA Fumarase A-deficient K12 (EJ1535) [30] Ó FEBS 2003 Metabolic flux profiling in E. coli (Eur. J. Biochem. 270) 881 Correction for naturally occurring isotopes The obtained EI spectral data are sets of ion clusters, each representing the distribution of mass isotopomers of a given amino-acid fragment. For each fragment a,amass isotopomer distribution vector (MDV): MDV a ¼ ðm 0 Þ ðm 1 Þ ðm 2 Þ ÁÁÁ ðm n Þ 2 6 6 6 6 4 3 7 7 7 7 5 with X m i ¼ 1 ð1Þ was assigned, where m 0 is the fractional abundance of fragments with the lowest mass and m i>0 the abundances of molecules with higher masses. These higher masses result from isotope signals that originate from (a) natural abun- dance in non-C-atoms, (b) natural abundance of 13 Cinthe derivatization reagent, and (c) 13 C in the carbon skeleton of the amino-acid fragment that were incorporated from naturally or artificially 13 C-labeled substrates. To obtain the exclusive mass isotope distribution of the carbon skeleton, MDV a were corrected for the natural isotope abundance of O, N, H, Si, S, and C atoms in the derivatizing agent by using correction matrices as described elsewhere [23], yielding MDV* a . Prior to analysis, the contribution of 13 C from unlabeled biomass in culture inocula was subtracted from MDV* a yielding MDV AA according to MDV AA ¼ MDV à a À f unlabeled ÁMDV unlabeled;n ð1 À f unlabeled Þ ð2Þ Fig. 1. Bioreaction network of E. coli central carbon metabolism. Arrows indicate the assumed reaction reversibility. Solid arrows indicate precursor withdrawal for the amino acid analyzed by GC-MS. Inactivated proteins in the investigated knockout mutants are highlighted in boxes. Abbre- viations: 6PG, 6-phosphogluconate; S7P, seduheptulose-7-phosphate; T3P, triose-3-phosphate; PGA 3-phosphoglycerate. 882 E. Fischer and U. Sauer (Eur. J. Biochem. 270) Ó FEBS 2003 where f unlabeled is the fraction of unlabeled biomass and MDV unlabeled,n is the mass distribution of an unlabeled fragment of length n. Its elements i can be calculated from the natural abundances of 12 Cand 13 C according to Eqn (3). MDV unlabeled;n ðiÞ ¼ c ðnÀiÞ 0 c ðiÞ 1 n i  ð3Þ c 0 and c 1 represent the natural abundance of 12 Cand 13 C, respectively, and n i ÀÁ is a binomial coefficient. The corrected MDV AA now represent the mass distributions of the carbon skeletons due to substrate incorporation (Fig. 2A). MDV of metabolites Amino acids are derived from one or more metabolic intermediates and MDV M of these metabolites (or their fragments) can easily be derived from the MDV AA ,as illustrated schematically in Fig. 2A. If we assume that the carbon skeleton of an amino acid originates from the metabolites M1 and M2, the mass distribution vector MDV AA is a combination of the mass distributions MDV M1 and MDV M2 and can be derived by element-wise multiplication according to: MDV AA ðiÞ¼MDV M1  MDV M2 ¼ X i j¼0 MDV M1 ði À jÞÁMDV M2 ðjÞð4Þ MDV M were obtained from a least squares fit to all MDV AA using the MATLAB function lsqnonlin with the additional constraint that the sum of their element equals 1. MDV of substrate fragments A fragment with n carbon atoms of a mixture of uniformly and naturally labeled substrate has the following mass distribution MDV S;n U ðiÞ¼ ð1 À lÞ c ðnÀiÞ 0 c i 1 þ lð1 À pÞ ðnÀiÞ p i  n i  ð5Þ where l is the labeled fraction and p is the purity of the labeled substrate. A fragment of a substrate that is 13 C-labeled at a specific position can either be unlabeled, thus having the mass distribution MDV unlabeled,n (Eqn 3) or it may contain the 13 C-labeled position leading to MDV S;n 1 (i)¼ð1ÀlÁpÞc ðnÀiÞ 0 c i 1 n i  þlÁp c ðnÀiÞ 0 c iÀ1 1 nÀ1 iÀ1  ð6Þ A summary of all obtained MDV is given in Table 2. Calculation of metabolic flux ratios The intracellular pool of a given metabolite can be derived from other metabolite pools through biochemical pathways (Fig. 2B). The fractional contribution f of a pathway to a target metabolite pool with MDV1 was determined as: f ¼ MDV1 À MDV3 MDV2 À MDV3 ð7Þ where MDV2 and MDV3 are the mass distributions of the source metabolites degraded through the examined and the alternative pathway, respectively. As MDV are vectors and Fig. 2. Example of the information flow from experimentally deter- mined mass distributions in amino acids to metabolites (A) and the calculation of flux ratios (B). Bars illustrating the mass distribution (m 0 , m 1 ,…,m n )aredrawntoscalefortheexampleofanE. coli batch culture grown on a mixture of 20% [U- 13 C] and 80% unlabeled glucose. Mass distributions of amino-acid fragments (MDV AA )are obtained from the experimentally determined MDVa by correction for natural isotope abundance and unlabeled biomass fraction. Mass distributions of metabolite fragments (MDV M )arecalculatedfrom MDV AA by using Eqn (4). (B) MDV M of different metabolites are used to calculate split ratios of diverging pathways and the MDV of CO 2 according to Eqn (9). Ó FEBS 2003 Metabolic flux profiling in E. coli (Eur. J. Biochem. 270) 883 not single data points, f represents the least-squares solution to Eqn (7). Accordingly, using MDV with n elements, up to n alternative pathways can be distinguished. For example, the individual contributions of three converging pathways is determined as: f 1 f 2 ! ¼ MDV1 À MDV4 MDV2 À MDV4 MDV3 À MDV4 ! ð8Þ with f 3 ¼ 1 ) f 1 ) f 2 . The origin of several intracellular metabolite pools can be determined with Eqns (7) and (8). Specifically, MDV M of six metabolites and MDV AA of two amino acids were used for metabolic flux ratio analysis (Table 2) together with MDV S of substrate fragments. In some cases, however, the metabolic precursors MDV2 or MDV3 were combinations of two MDV M . Eqn (4) was applied to calculate the mass distribution of these combinations. Pentose phosphate pathway E. coli can potentially catabolize glucose to trioses via three different biochemical pathways, i.e. glycolysis, ED pathway, and PP pathway [24] (Fig. 1). Upon growth on a mixture of [U- 13 C] and unlabeled glucose, introduction and cleavage of bonds between carbon atoms is reflected in the MDV M of PEP, P5P, and E4P. As glucose catabolism through the glycolysis and the ED pathway yields uncleaved trioses, the activity of these two pathways is indistinguishable with [U- 13 C]glucose. The activity of transketolase and trans- aldolase in the nonoxidative PP pathway, however, can be accessed. As exchange fluxes between serine and glycine [16] clearly influence the mass distribution of serine, PEP (1)2) was used to determine the fraction of trioses that were cleaved and rearranged between C 1 –C 2 by the action of transketolase, and compared to the fraction that originates from an unbroken two carbon unit of glucose according to Eqn (7). An upper bound for PEP molecules that were generated from P5P can be calculated assuming that five trioses are produced from three pentoses and that at least two trioses are rearranged by transketolase. It should be noted that the thus calculated fraction of PEP originating from P5P does not necessarily reflect glucose catabolism through the PP pathway, but may likewise result from a reversible exchange flux via transketolase. Two other metabolites that reflect transketolase and transaldolase activities are P5P and E4P. P5P molecules may be produced either via the oxidative PP pathway from G6P, thus yielding an intact five carbon skeleton from a source molecule of glucose, or via the transketolase reaction, which cleaves between C 3 –C 4 . Additionally, P5P may also originate from E4P and a one carbon unit through the combined action of transaldolase and trans- ketolase. The contributions of the three converging pathways are thus calculated using Eqn (8). As transketo- lase can reversibly cleave P5P and multiple cycling may occur through the PP pathway, P5P from G6P is calculated as a lower bound for the fraction of P5P molecules that were generated via the oxidative PP pathway. The second PP pathway intermediate, E4P, is either produced from F6P as an uncleaved four carbon unit or via the combined activity of transketolase and transaldolase from P5P. The latter introduces E4P molecules with cleaved C 1 –C 2 bonds originating from the fraction of P5P that was cleaved between C 3 –C 4 . The E4P pool was analyzed using Eqn (7). Anaplerosis and the TCA Cycle [U- 13 C]glucose experiments were also used to distinguish OAA produced either from a four carbon unit via the TCA cycle or from PEP and CO 2 via the anaplerotic reaction catalyzed by PEP carboxylase (see also Fig. 2). OAA (1)4) can thus be derived from the mass distribution of OGA (2)5) or from a combination of the MDV of PEP with CO 2 , according to Eqn (4). As the fractional labeling of CO 2 (l CO 2 ) is unknown in batch cultures and may be lower than the fractional enrichment of the input substrate, it was treated as an additional unknown using f f à l CO 2 ! ¼ OAA ð1À4Þ À OGA ð2À5Þ Â PEP ð1À3Þ 0 à À OGA ð2À5Þ 0 PEP ð1À3Þ Âà À PEP ð1À3Þ 0 Âà ! ð9Þ The fraction of OAA molecules that originate through the TCA cycle is thus determined as 1 ) f. The remaining fraction originates from PEP either through PEP carboxy- lase or through reversible malic enzyme via pyruvate. Additionally, the fraction of OAA (1)4) derived from glyoxylate via the glyoxylate shunt can be detected as a combination of pyruvate (2)3) and OAA (1)2) . Table 2. Mass distribution vectors used for flux ratio analysis. The carbon atoms included in each considered fragment are specified for each MDV M and MDV AA .MDV S are described by the length n of the fragment and its 13 C-content. U, 20% [U- 13 C] and 80% unlabeled glucose experiment; 1, 100%[1- 13 C]glucose experiment. Experiment MDV Metabolite PEP U PEP (1)3) PEP (2)3) PEP (1)2) 1 PEP (1)2) Pyruvate U Pyruvate (1)3) Pyruvate (2)3) 1 Pyruvate (1)3) Pyruvate (2)3) OAA U OAA (1)4) OAA (2)4) OAA (1)2) 1 OAA (1)4) OAA (2)4) OAA (1)2) OGA U OGA (1)5) OGA (2)5) 1 OGA (1)5) OGA (2)5) E4P U E4P (1)4) P5P U P5P (1)5) 1 P5P (1)5) Amino acid Serine U Serine (1)3) Serine (2)3) Serine (1)2) 1 Serine (1)3) Serine (2)3) Serine (1)2) Glycine U Glycine (1)2) 1 Glycine (1)2) Substrate Glucose U Glc,n U 1 Glc,n 1 Glc,n unlabeled 884 E. Fischer and U. Sauer (Eur. J. Biochem. 270) Ó FEBS 2003 Gluconeogenic reactions Fluxes from the TCA cycle to the lower part of glycolysis via malic enzyme and PEP carboxykinase can be diagnosed as cleaved C 2 –C 3 bonds in pyruvate and PEP, respectively. The interconversion of malate to pyruvate via the malic enzymes (ScfA and Mae) can thus be determined by comparing the pyruvate (2)3) and PEP (2)3) fragments using Eqn (7). As the mass distribution of malate is unknown, a pyruvate (2)3) molecule produced via malic enzyme was assumed to have the mass distribution of two combined one carbon units, each with the fractional 13 C-label of the input glucose. This assumption includes (a) that all malate molecules are broken between C 2 –C 3 , thus are derived from OGA, and (b) that the fractional enrichment of C 2 and C 3 in malate does not differ from the fractional enrichment in the input substrate. A dilution of the fractional enrichment might be observed, for example, in positions where CO 2 is introduced. This, however, may occur only at C 1 or C 4 of malate, thus does not affect the present calculation of the lower bound for malic enzyme activity. If the malate pool is in equilibrium with OAA, intact C 2 –C 3 fragments from anaplerosis are present in malate. Thus, an upper bound for pyruvate produced through malic enzyme can be defined for the extreme case of full equilibration of the malate and OAA pools. Similarly, PEP carboxykinase activity can be detected in the cleaved fraction of PEP (2)3) using Eqn (7). As a cleaved C 2 –C 3 bond in PEP may also result from transaldolase activity, the thus calculated fraction of PEP originating from OAA remains an upper bound on the PEP carboxy- kinase activity. C1-metabolism The reversible exchange of the serine and glycine pools was quantified by determining the fraction of serine (1)3) origin- ating from glycine (1)2) and a one carbon unit vs. the fraction that is identical with PEP (1)3) (Eqn 7). Additionally, the fraction of glycine (1)2) derived from serine (1)2) was attained assuming that the remaining glycine fraction with two independent C atoms originates from CO 2 and a one carbon unit through the reversible glycine cleavage pathway or through threonine cleavage catalyzed by the threonine aldolase. The latter enzyme was reported to be active in E. coli under some conditions, albeit not those used here [22,25]. Calculation of metabolic flux ratios from [1- 13 C]glucose experiments To obtain more precise information about the in vivo activities of the PP and ED pathway and the PEP carboxykinase, positional labeling was detected from cells grown exclusively on [1- 13 C]glucose. As the MDV of PEP could not be obtained in [1- 13 C]glucose experiments, serine was used instead to quantify the relative contribution of glycolysis to triose-3P synthesis, compared to the PP and ED pathways. The exchange flux with glycine does not change the label content in serine, unless substantial fractions of glycine or the one carbon unit are produced from sources other than serine. The oxidative PP or the ED pathway both yield unlabeled triose-3P, while glycolysis yields 50% unlabeled and 50% triose-3P that is 13 C-labeled at C 1 (Eqn 7). If the ED pathway is active, additional label is introduced at the level of pyruvate, resulting in different MDV of serine (1)3) and pyruvate (1)3) , which can be used to assess the relative contribution of this pathway to pyruvate synthesis using Eqn (7). Additionally, pyruvate derived through the ED pathway is labeled at C 1 , while pyruvate originating from glycolysis is labeled at C 3 . The fraction of pyruvate molecules labeled at C 1 can be calculated from the difference between pyruvate (1)3) and pyruvate (2)3) . This information is used to verify that the label is indeed introduced through the ED pathway and not through a gluconeogenic reaction. Finally, PEP (1)2) originating from OAA (1)2) via the PEP carboxykinase was quantified using Eqn (7) assuming that the remaining fraction is identical to serine (1)2) . Error consideration The experimental measurement error was determined by comparing the MDV a of amino acids with identical carbon skeletons, and the standard deviation of these redundant data was used for calculation of the covariance matrix C m of the measured individual mass intensities. Standard devi- ations of the calculated flux ratios were determined applying the law of error propagation C r ¼ J*C m *J T where J is the jacobian matrix and C r the covariance matrix of the output variables. J was obtained numerically for MDV M after the least-squares fitting step and calculated analytically for the final flux ratios. Results Sensitivity of metabolic flux ratio analysis using different mixtures of [U- 13 C] and unlabeled glucose For economical reasons, low fractions of expensive 13 C-labeled substrates are desirable for labeling experiments, provided that analytical resolution and sensitivity are maintained. To identify an optimal compromise, we grew E. coli MG1655 batch cultures in 5 mL M9 medium with different mixtures of [U- 13 C] and unlabeled glucose. While fully 13 C-labeled or unlabeled biomass contained no infor- mation on metabolic fluxes, mixtures of 20/80, 40/60, 60/40, and 80/20 of [U- 13 C] and unlabeled glucose, respectively, allowed to determine flux ratios that were consistent within the experimental error (data not shown). Although the lowest experimental error is achieved at around equimolar fractions of [U- 13 C] and unlabeled glucose, the 20% [U- 13 C]glucose mixture enabled very reliable determination of intracellular flux ratios and was thus used in the further experiments. Metabolic flux ratio analysis of E. coli under different environmental conditions While exponentially growing cells are initially in a physio- logical pseudo steady state, metabolic switches occur upon oxygen limitation or accumulation of metabolic byproducts. To identify reproducible conditions that faithfully reflect the physiological state of unlimited, exponentially growing cells, Ó FEBS 2003 Metabolic flux profiling in E. coli (Eur. J. Biochem. 270) 885 biomass aliquots were harvested at different time points from wild-type batch cultures in shake flasks growing on 100% [1- 13 C]glucose or on a 20%/80% mixture of [U- 13 C] and unlabeled glucose. Overall, the determined origin of metabolite pools did not change significantly with the time of harvest (data partly shown in Fig. 3). The sole exceptions were increasing fractions of serine derived through glyco- lysis and OAA derived through the TCA cycle upon approaching stationary phase (Fig. 3), as was observed earlier [7]. Hence, all further analyses were performed with biomass aliquots harvested at D 600 values between 0.8 and 1.5. Next, we investigated the metabolic impact of different levels of aeration from fully aerobic (500 mL baffled shake flask) to suboptimally aerated (15 mL vials) and anaerobic E. coli batch cultures (Fig. 4). With decreasing oxygen availability, most prominently, the fraction of OAA origin- ating through the TCA cycle decreases from 44% to 5%. This reveals a branched, noncyclic operation of the TCA cycle to fulfill exclusively biosynthetic requirements, as was also shown earlier [7,16,26]. Although the oxidative PP pathway is still active under anaerobic conditions (serine through glycolysis), its relative contribution to glucose catabolism is decreased from 19% to 5% (Fig. 4), which concurs with most [7,16] but not all [26] reports. The frequently reported upper bound on in vivo PP pathway activity obtained from [U- 13 C]glucose experiments, in contrast (PEP from P5P), is not sensitive to this decrease. Unexpectedly, suboptimally aerated conditions promote relatively high in vivo malic enzyme activity (pyruvate from malate). Likewise, the of CO 2 originating from air in the [U- 13 C]glucose experiments decreased with decreasing oxy- gen availability from 20% to 0%. Thus, introduction of unlabeled CO 2 via carboxylation reactions can be neglected in vials or anaerobic cultures, but is significant in the better aerated shake flask cultures. To ensure fully aerobic conditions, all further experiments were conducted in shake flasks. Metabolic flux ratio analysis of E. coli mutants of central metabolism The above developed metabolic flux ratio analysis by GC-MS was used for metabolic flux profiling of nonlethal mutations in all major pathways of E. coli central meta- bolism (Fig. 1). For this purpose, aerobic batch cultures were grown in shake flasks with M9 medium containing either [1- 13 C]glucose or a 20/80 mixture of [U- 13 C] and unlabeled glucose, which were identified above as reliable experimental conditions. Based on the physiological data obtained from three different wild-type strains, maximum specific growth rates of 0.5–0.7Æh )1 , biomass yields of 0.4–0.5 g(CDW)Æg(glucose) )1 , and specific glucose uptake rates of 6.5–8.5 mmolÆg(CDW) )1 Æh )1 may be considered as normal for E. coli (Table 3). Hence, only the Pgi, PfkA, and Mae/Pck mutants exhibited clear physiological phenotypes with significantly reduced growth and glucose uptake rates. While the flux profiles were similar in the three wild-type strains with small differences in the fractions of serine originating from glycine and OAA originating through the TCA cycle (Fig. 5), major changes were seen in the mutants (Fig. 6). Consistent with its severely reduced growth rate, the phosphoglucose isomerase-deficient Pgi mutant exhi- bited a very different flux profile without any glycolytic flux (serine through glycolysis in Fig. 6). Unexpectedly, the ED pathway was found to contribute about 30% to glucose catabolism in the Pgi mutant (pyruvate through ED Fig. 4. Origin of metabolic intermediates in E. co li wild-type during aerobic (white bars), suboptimally aerated (gray bars), and anaerobic (black bars) growth. The experimental error was estimated from redundant mass distributions. Asterisks indicate results obtained from 100% [1- 13 C] glucose experiments. All other results were from 20% [U- 13 C] and 80% unlabeled glucose experiments. The fractions of pyruvate originating from malate and PEP originating from OAA could not be determined under anaerobic conditions because the OAA pool is derived exclusively from PEP. Fig. 3. Influence of harvest time on METAFoR analysis of E. coli MG1655 in aerobic shake flask batch cultures. The line indicates the exponential fit with a growth rate of 0.6 h )1 to the D 600 readings (closed circles). Fractions of OAA through the TCA cycle (open cir- cles), serine from glycine (open triangles), and pyruvate from malate (ub) (open squares) were obtained from 20% [U- 13 C] and 80% unlabeled glucose experiments. Serine through glycolysis (open dia- monds) was obtained from 100% [1- 13 C]glucose experiments. Error bars indicate standard deviations of triplicate experiments. 886 E. Fischer and U. Sauer (Eur. J. Biochem. 270) Ó FEBS 2003 pathway), so that the remaining 70% are contributed by the PP pathway, which is consistent with the upper bound of 80% PEP from P5P (Fig. 6). The PfkA mutant is deficient in the allosterically regula- ted, major isoform of phosphofructokinase that constitutes about 90% of the total phosphofructokinase activity [27,28]. As phosphofructokinase is required for glucose catabolism via both glycolysis and PP pathway, the very low specific glucose uptake rate of the PfkA mutant and, as a consequence, the low growth rate on glucose are expected (Table 3). Consistently, the major fraction of serine is still generated through glycolysis (Fig. 6), probably catalyzed by the intact minor isoform phosphofructokinase B. However, the flux partitioning into the PP pathway (PEP from P5P) is significantly increased. Flux profiles of the Zwf and PykAF mutants defective in G6P dehydrogenase and both pyruvate kinase isoforms, respectively, were somewhat similar to that of the wild-type. Significant flux changes in the Zwf mutant were seen in the reactions related to the PP pathway (data partly shown in Fig. 6). A 93% fraction of serine originating through glycolysis indicates residual PP pathway and/or ED path- way fluxes for glucose catabolism in the range of 7%. Consistent with the previously described metabolic bypass of pyruvate kinase knockout via PEP carboxylase and malic enzyme [7,18], the PykAF mutant exhibited lower fractions of OAA originating through the TCA cycle and higher fractions of pyruvate originating from malate (Fig. 6). During the growth on glucose investigated here, simul- taneous inactivation of the two gluconeogenic reactions catalyzed by malic enzyme and PEP carboxykinase had no significant effect on the flux profile of the Mae/Pck mutant (Fig. 6). This result was expected, as the fractions of pyruvate originating from malate and PEP originating from OAA that are indicative of in vivo malic enzyme and PEP carboxykinase activity, respectively, were already at detec- tion level in the wild-type strains (Fig. 5). Disruption of the TCA cycle in the Sdh/Mdh and FumA mutants [29,30] reduced primarily the fraction of OAA generated through the TCA cycle (Fig. 6). This fraction is zero in the double knockout mutant in malate dehydrogenase and succinate dehydrogenase, which reveals complete inactivation of the Table 3. Aerobic growth parameters of exponentially growing E. c oli strains in [1- 13 C] and [U- 13 C]glucose (in parentheses) experiments. Strain Growth rate (h )1 ) Biomass yield (gÆg )1 ) Glucose uptake rate (mmolÆg )1 Æh )1 ) Wild-types MG1655 0.61 (0.60) 0.39 (0.39) 8.5 (8.6) W3110 0.55 (0.53) 0.41 (0.43) 7.3 (6.8) JM101 0.69 (0.68) 0.49 (0.49) 7.7 (7.7) Mutants Zwf 0.68 (0.65) 0.53 (0.52) 8.8 (8.8) Pgi 0.17 (0.15) 0.39 (0.40) 2.5 (2.0) PfkA 0.08 (0.08) 0.41 (0.41) 1.4 (1.5) PykAF 0.60 (0.59) 0.41 (n.d) 8.1 (n.d) Mae/Pck 0.41 (0.44) 0.40 (0.42) 5.7 (5.8) SdhA/Mdh 0.50 (0.51) 0.43 (0.40) 6.5 (7.1) FumA 0.67 (0.65) 0.46 (0.45) 8.2 (8.3) Fig. 5. Origin of metabolic intermediates in the E. c oli wild-type strains MG1655 (white), JM101 (gray), and W3110 (black) during aerobic exponential growth. The experimental error was estimated from redundant mass distributions. Asterisks indicate results obtained from 100% [1- 13 C]glucose experiments. All other results were from 20% [U- 13 C] and 80% unlabeled glucose experiments. Fig. 6. Origin of metabolic intermediates in E. c oli mutants during aerobic exponential growth. The experimental error was estimated from redundant mass distributions. Asterisks indicate results obtained from [1- 13 C]glucose experiments. All other results were from 20% [U- 13 C] and 80% unlabeled glucose experi- ments. Ó FEBS 2003 Metabolic flux profiling in E. coli (Eur. J. Biochem. 270) 887 TCA cycle and exclusive origin of OAA through the anaplerotic PEP carboxylase. Although knockout of the major fumarase isoform in the FumA mutant strongly reduced TCA cycle fluxes, a residual TCA cycle contribu- tion to OAA synthesis of about 16% remains. Discussion We introduce here metabolic flux ratio analysis by GC-MS as a novel methodology for flux profiling from 13 C-labeling experiments. This methodology is based on probabilistic equations that relate mass distributions in amino acids to metabolic activities, and quantifies the relative contribution of converging pathways or reactions to metabolic interme- diates. While MS data were used previously to analytically deduce individual flux ratios, for example at the G6P node [13,19,31] and in gluconeogenesis [32], the generalized methodology presented here simultaneously quantifies 14 flux ratios in central metabolism during growth on glucose. The thus obtained metabolic flux profile provides compre- hensive information on in vivo activities of all major pathways in central carbon metabolism, hence concomi- tantly identifies the network topology. Although similar in scope to previously described metabolic flux ratio analysis by NMR [16,17], GC-MS-based analysis provides a signi- ficant advance in handling and sensitivity, so that biomass samples as low as 1 mg cellular dry weight may be analyzed. Without the need for time-consuming quantitative physio- logical analysis, this methodology thus paves the road to rapid diagnosis of metabolic changes in culture volumes below 1 mL. Using metabolic flux ratio analysis by GC-MS, we dissect here flux responses of E. coli central metabolism to environmental and genetic modifications for two reasons: to (a) experimentally verify the accuracy of the new methodology and to (b) identify novel metabolic response. Estimation of in vivo PP pathway activity has received considerable attention, due to its variability with environ- mental conditions and relevance for NADPH metabolism. For aerobic batch cultures of E. coli, the relative contribu- tion of the PP pathway to glucose catabolism has long been a matter of debate, yielding values between less than 10% to about 50% of glucose consumption [26,33]. For three different E. coli wild-type strains, we show here that the PP pathway contribution to fully aerobic glucose catabolism varies between 14% and 20% (Figs 5 and 7 A and 7B). This contribution does not change significantly upon mutations downstream of triose 3-phosphate. When forced to serve as the primary route for glucose catabolism in the phospho- glucose isomerase knockout (Fig. 7A), the PP pathway supports only a significantly lower growth rate than that observed for the wild-type. The strong reduction of PP and ED pathway fluxes upon knockout of G6P dehydrogenase (Fig. 7B) reveals the nonessential nature of both pathways for growth on glucose, as the growth physiology of the Zwf mutant was indistinguishable from that of the wild-type. Noticeably, a fraction of about 7% of the serine molecules does not originate from glycolysis in the Zwf mutant. The 13 C labeling pattern of serine is instead consistent with a low but significant flux through either the PP or ED pathway. A similar observation was made with other, independently generated G6P dehydrogenase mutants (data not shown). Such a bypass of the inactivated G6P dehydrogenase may be catalyzed for example by the periplasmic glucose dehydrogenase, which produces glucono-d-lactone that can be further converted to gluconate [24]. Consistent with the reported gluconate induction [21], in vivo activity of the ED pathway was low but not completely absent in wild-type E. coli during aerobic growth on glucose (Figs 4,5, and 7C). In knockout mutants of glycolysis and TCA cycle, however, the ED pathway catalyzes up to 30% of glucose catabolism (Figs 6 and 7C). This is surprising because the inducer of this pathway is not present and, at least for the example of the Pgi mutant, in vitro ED pathway enzyme activities are not significantly higher [34]. In the Pgi mutant, this flux rerouting through the ED pathway reduces concomitant excess NADPH formation from exclusive glucose catabolism via the PP pathway, which generates two NADPH compared to one in the ED pathway per catabolized glucose. This overproduc- tion of NADPH is deleterious, as limited capacity for reoxidation of NADPH is one reason for the low growth rate of phosphoglucose isomerase-deficient E. coli [34]. However, exclusive glucose catabolism via the ED pathway does not support growth of E. coli, as double mutants in both isoforms of phosphofructokinase cannot grow on glucose as the sole carbon source [27]. As may be expected from the known genetic regulation, low or absent in vivo activity of the gluconeogenic reactions catalyzed by PEP carboxykinase and malic enzyme was seen in our batch cultures. Consistent with previous flux analyses based on NMR data [7,18], the sole exception was the PykAF mutant, which bypassed the pyruvate kinase reaction by redirecting carbon flow via PEP carboxylase and malic enzyme (Fig. 6). A very important flux ratio characterizing the metabolic state of a culture is the fraction of OAA originating through the TCA cycle, which quantifies the proportion to which the TCA cycle is used for energy generation vs. biosynthetic precursor supply via the anaplerotic PEP carboxylase (Fig. 7D). Consequently, this ratio is influenced by envi- ronmental factors such as growth phase (Fig. 3), aeration (Fig. 4), and overflow metabolism, but to some extent also by the genetic background of the wild-type strains (Fig. 5), as was noted previously for different organisms [7,16,26,35,36]. Generally, anaplerosis is high under condi- tions that invoke overflow metabolism, as acetate formation reduces the fraction of intact two carbon units entering the TCA cycle. Metabolic flux ratio analysis by GC-MS successfully captures the effective disruption of the TCA cycle in the Sdh/Mdh mutant (Figs 6 and 7D). Although the major fumarase isoform is inactivated in the FumA mutant, its respiratory TCA cycle flux is still at about one third of that in the wild-type (Fig. 6). This reveals that the two remaining fumarase isoforms are also important during growth on glucose. Despite the different genetic backgrounds of the mutants in the upper part of central metabolism and their variations in growth rate, however, we observed surprisingly small deviations in this fraction of OAA originating through the TCA cycle. Thus, all mutants that were not related to the TCA cycle maintained a similar balance between anaplerosis and energy generation during exponential growth. 888 E. Fischer and U. Sauer (Eur. J. Biochem. 270) Ó FEBS 2003 Most prominently among the presented data, this last result provides experimental evidence for metabolic network resilience to disruption [37–40]. While this was partly predicted for E. coli from computational network analysis [41] and is obvious from the fact that the investigated mutants grow in minimal medium, the flux results presented here reveal how metabolism manages intracellular flux redistribution upon disruption of all major pathways. 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(C) Relative contribution of the catabolic pathways and malic enzyme to the formation of the pyruvate pool from [1- 13 C] and [U- 13 C]glucose experiments. (D) Relative contributions of anaplerosis and the TCA-cycle to the formation of the OAA pool from [U- 13 C]glucose experiments. Dashed arrows symbolize reactions that are not considered for a given flux ratio. Ó FEBS 2003 Metabolic flux profiling in E. coli (Eur. J. 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Metabolic flux profiling of Escherichia coli mutants in central carbon metabolism using GC-MS Eliane Fischer and Uwe Sauer Institute of Biotechnology,. analysis of E. coli mutants of central metabolism The above developed metabolic flux ratio analysis by GC-MS was used for metabolic flux profiling of nonlethal mutations