IGEM:Imperial/2010/Modelling

Have a look at this link: Synthetic Biology (Spring2008): Computer Modelling Practicals

Have a look at Cell Designer to easily generate images of the system.

Example on how Valencia 2006 team used SimulLink to simulate their project: Valencia 2006 PowerPoint presentation

Objectives

Week 6

Get results for the output amplification models (hopefully, we can find constants; if not, we can say for which range of values our model will work):

• August 12th: Find constants
• August 13th: FInd protein production constants and TEV reaction rate constants

Week 7

• August 16th: Implementing the constant ranges in the output model. Comparing the results between the models.
• August 17th: Start modelling the protein display signalling to find the concentrations

Output amplification model

Motivation: We have come up with a simple concept of amplification of output done by enzymes. Before the final constructs are assembled within the bacterial ogranism, it is beneficial for us to model the behaviour of our design.

The questions to be answered:

1. How beneficial use of amplification is? (compare speeds of response of transcription based output to amplified outputs)
2. How many 'amplification levels' are beneficial to have? (if too many amplification steps are involved, the associated time delay with expressing even amplfiied output may prove it not to be beneficial.
3. Does mixing of amplfication levels have a negative infleunce on output? Is it better to use TEV all the way or HIV1? Modelling should allows us to take decision which design is more efficient.

First attempt

At each stage of amplification a distinct protease is being used

At each stage of amplification a distinct protease is being used

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TEV is used at both stages of amplification

TEV is used at both stages of amplification

Second attempt

Model improved to account for the enzymes (protease action)

Implementation in Matlab

The Matlab code for the different stages of amplification and diagrams can be found here.

Kinetic constants

Quality	GFP	TEV	split TEV	split GFP
Km and Kcat	Doesn't apply	TEV constants (Km and kcat)	40% of whole TEV	Doesn't apply
half-life or degradation rate	Half-life of GFP in Bacillus = 1.5 hours - ref. Chris	?	?	Half-life shorter than GFP
production rate in B.sub	?	?	?	?

Conclusions

We couldn't obtain all the necessary constants. Hence, we decided to make educated guesses about possible relative values between the constants as well as varying them and observing the change in output.

As the result, we concluded that the amplification happens at each amplification level proposed. It's magnitude varies depending on the constants. There doesn’t seem to be much difference in substitution of TEV with HIV1.

Modified version

Michaelis Menten kineticsdoes not apply

We cannot use Michaelis-Menten kinetics because of its preliminary assumptions, which our system does not fulfil. These assumptions are:

• Vmax is proportional to the overall concentration of the enzyme.

But we are producing enzyme, so Vmax will change! Therefore, the conservation E0 = E + ES does not hold for our system.

• Substrate >> Enzyme.

Since we are producing both substrate and enzyme, we have roughly the same amount of substrate and enzyme.

• Enzyme affinity to substrate has to be high.

Therefore, the model above is not representative of the enzymatic reaction. As we cannot use the Michaelis-Menten model we will have to solve from first principle (which just means writing down all of the biochemical equations and solving for these in Matlab).

Changes in the system

GFP is not used any more as an output. It is dioxygenase acting on the catechol (activating it into colourful form). Catechol will be added to bacteria, it won't be produced by them. Hence, basically in our models dioxynase is going to be treated as an output as this enzyme is recognised as the only activator of catechol in our system. This means that change of catechol into colourful form is dependent on dioxygenase concentration.

Models:

Production of Dioxygenase

This model includes transcription and translation of the dioxygenase. It does not involve any amplification steps. It is our control model against which we will be comparing the results of other models.

Activation of Dioxygenase by TEV enzyme

The reaction can be rewritten as: TEV + split Dioxygenase <-> TEV-split Dioxygenase -> TEV + Dioxygenase. This is a simple enzymatic reaction, where TEV is the enzyme, Dioxygenase the product and split Dioxygenase the substrate. Choosing k1, k2, k3 as reaction constants, the reaction can be rewritten in these four sub-equations:

1. [T'] = -k1[T][sD] + (k2+k3)[TsD] + sT - dT[T]
2. [sD']= -k1[T][sD] + k2[TsD] + ssD - dsD[sD]
3. [TsD'] = k1[T][sD] - (k2+k3)[TsD] - dTsD[TsD]
4. [D'] = k3[TsD] - dD[D]

These four equations were implemented in Matlab, using a built-in function (ode45) which solves ordinary differential equations. The Matlab code for this module can be found here.

Results of the Matlab simulation, setting all constants to 1

Implementation in TinkerCell

Another approach to model the amplification module would be to implement it in a program such as TinkerCell (or CellDesigner). It would also be useful to check whether the Matlab model works.

LHS: Network implemented in TinkerCell, RHS: constants and results

Activation of Dioxygenase by TEV or activated split TEV enzyme

This version includes the following features:

• 2 amplification steps (TEV and split TEV)
• Split TEV is specified to have a and b parts
• TEVa is forbidden to interact TEVa (though in reality there could be some affinity between the two). Same for interaction between Tevb and Tevb
• Both TEV and TEVs are allowed to activate dioxugenase molecule
• Dioxugenase is assumed to be active as a monomer
• Activate split TEV (TEVs) is not allowed to activate sTEVa or sTEVb (this kind of interaction is accounted for in the next model version)
• There is no specific terms for time delays included

The MatLab code canbe found here. Note that no final conclusions should be drawn before realistic estimates for kinetic constants are included. It wasn’t done so far.

All chemical species appearing in the model	Network of the improved model
Resulting graphs part 1. Compare the production graphs of TEV (transcribed and translated from scratch and the Dioxugenase which is the final species in the whole cascade	Resulting graphs part 2.

Further improvement

This model is not implemented yet.

This version adds the following features:

• activated split TEV (TEVs) is allowed to activate not only sD but sTEVa and sTEVb

Network of the further improved model

Network of the further improved model (continued)

Constants for Model

Enzymatic Reaction: E + S <-> ES -> E + P

Let

• k1 = rate constant for E + S -> ES
• k2 = rate constant for E + S <- ES
• kcat = rate constant for ES -> E + P

We know that Km = (kcat + k2)/k1 Assuming that kcat << k2 << k1, we can rewrite Km ~ k2/k1

From this paper constants for TEV can be found:

• e.g. wildtype TEV
• Km = 0.062 +/- 0.010 mM
• kcat = 0.16 +/- 0.01 s^-1

These values correspond with our assumption that kcat ~ 0.1 s^-1 and Km ~ 0.01 mM.

Hence, we can estimate the following orders of magnitude for the rate constants:

• k1 ~ 10^5
• k2 ~ 10^3

Using these values should be a good approximation for our model.