A general computational model of mitochondrial metabolism in a whole organelle scale.

Abstract

A computational tool for mitochondrial systems biology has been developed as a simulation model of E-Cell2, a publicly available simulation system. The general model consists of 58 enzymatic reactions and 117 metabolites, representing the respiratory chain, the TCA cycle, the fatty acid beta-oxidation and the inner-membrane transport system. It is based on previously published enzyme kinetics studies in the literature; we have successfully integrated and packaged them into a single large model. The model can be easily extended and modified so that mitochondrial biologists/physiologists can integrate their own models and evaluate them in the context of the whole organelle metabolism. The mitochondrial model is bundled up with E-Cell2 simulation system, which can be downloaded from http://www.e-cell.org. CD-ROMs are also available and are distributed at major conferences. All the kinetic data are available via http://www.e-cell.org