Paper published on conditions for shifts metabolic strategies

Why do microbes shift between metabolic strategies, and under what conditions do phenomena such as overflow metabolism emerge?

This new paper by mathematicians Maarten Droste and Bob Planqué together with VU systems biologist Frank Bruggeman, addresses these questions using coarse-grained resource allocation models. They identify key requirements underlying metabolic shifts and show how factors such as growth-limiting constraints and protein efficiency determine when different metabolic strategies become favorable. Beyond this, the study also provides a unified framework for understanding metabolic shifts across different experimental conditions and established models.

Read the full article published in PLoS Computational Biology here.