Phenomenological-based semi-physical model characterizing the central metabolic response of Escherichia coli to changes in batch culture temperature

Abstract

This work presents a phenomenological-based semi-physical model characterizing the E. coli response to environmental temperature changes in batch cultures. The proposed model is based on a general description of the mass balance of the central metabolism and an energy balance that focuses on key parameters. This model can represent changes in specific growth rate and alteration to the mass flows of the central metabolism. Moreover, the model can make predictions regarding microorganism growth, respiratory rate, glucose consumption, acetate accumulation, and heat exchange between E. coli and its environment at several different temperatures. The fit and validation of the model was assessed against published data obtained under aerobic growth conditions in agitated tank bioreactor cultures. Our assessment of this model indicates that mass and energy balances can predict global changes in E. coli metabolism that are associated with different temperature conditions and differences in heat flow between bacteria and the environment. This model can be used to correlate environmental conditions with experimental bioreactor parameters and simulate microorganismal response during the design of temperature control systems for bioreactors and can even be used as a base model to represent heat-inducible E. coli strains used in recombinant protein production.