Experimental trophic flexibility guides a compartmentalized genome-scale model of red microalgae Galdieria sulphuraria
- 1University of Latvia
Abstract
The thermoacidophilic red microalga Galdieria sulphuraria combines broad organic-carbon utilization with biotechnological robustness. We integrated cultivation data for strain SAG 107.79 with an organelle-resolved genome-scale metabolic model describing autotrophic, mixotrophic and heterotrophic metabolism. Heterotrophic cultures produced 2.29, 2.03 and 2.14 g L-1 biomass on glucose, xylose and their mixture, respectively, while mixed-sugar cultures consumed glucose before xylose. Biomass composition was similar under mixotrophy and heterotrophy, and stationary-phase glucose consumption supported a non-growth-associated maintenance demand of 1.7 mmol ATP gDW-1 h-1. These measurements informed trophic-state-specific biomass objective functions. The final model contains 2,487 reactions, 2,270 compartment-specific metabolites and 1,050 genes. The model reproduced the experimentally scored growth phenotypes, highlighted polyol-associated product capacity under heterotrophy and scored 90% in the archived MEMOTE report. To our knowledge, this is the first experimentally based, organelle-resolved genome-scale metabolic model for G. sulphuraria, providing a quantitative framework linking trophic state and substrate identity with carbon use, flux flexibility and product capacity. A user-friendly supplementary package provides the executable SBML model, modular biomass resources, reproducible scripts, quality reports and underlying experimental data.
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BibTeX
@misc{pentjuss2026experimental,
title = {{Experimental trophic flexibility guides a compartmentalized genome-scale model of red microalgae Galdieria sulphuraria}},
author = {A. Pentjuss and S. Kolesovs and M. Grube and R. Scerbaka and K. Svirksts and E. Stalidzans and A. Vigants and S. Smetana and D. Pleissner},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.15.759342},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759342v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Experimental trophic flexibility guides a compartmentalized genome-scale model of red microalgae Galdieria sulphuraria
AU - A. Pentjuss
AU - S. Kolesovs
AU - M. Grube
AU - R. Scerbaka
AU - K. Svirksts
AU - E. Stalidzans
AU - A. Vigants
AU - S. Smetana
AU - D. Pleissner
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.15.759342
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759342v1
AB - The thermoacidophilic red microalga Galdieria sulphuraria combines broad organic-carbon utilization with biotechnological robustness. We integrated cultivation data for strain SAG 107.79 with an organelle-resolved genome-scale metabolic model describing autotrophic, mixotrophic and heterotrophic metabolism. Heterotrophic cultures produced 2.29, 2.03 and 2.14 g L-1 biomass on glucose, xylose and their mixture, respectively, while mixed-sugar cultures consumed glucose before xylose. Biomass composition was similar under mixotrophy and heterotrophy, and stationary-phase glucose consumption supported a non-growth-associated maintenance demand of 1.7 mmol ATP gDW-1 h-1. These measurements informed trophic-state-specific biomass objective functions. The final model contains 2,487 reactions, 2,270 compartment-specific metabolites and 1,050 genes. The model reproduced the experimentally scored growth phenotypes, highlighted polyol-associated product capacity under heterotrophy and scored 90% in the archived MEMOTE report. To our knowledge, this is the first experimentally based, organelle-resolved genome-scale metabolic model for G. sulphuraria, providing a quantitative framework linking trophic state and substrate identity with carbon use, flux flexibility and product capacity. A user-friendly supplementary package provides the executable SBML model, modular biomass resources, reproducible scripts, quality reports and underlying experimental data.
ER -