Abstract

System Biology brought the possibility of the holistic characterization of micro-organisms. Approaches used in System Biology are interesting for the characterization of microbial biotechnological processes, allowing the establishment of in silico models properly representing these processes and being quite useful in the cyclic design and assessment of improved processes, which is the modus operandi of Metabolic Engineering. Evolution has worked for billions of years in microbial genetic and metabolic networks generating variable cell platforms which should be considered for the development of microbial biotechnological processes. In this work, we characterize three cell platforms based on metabolic flux distribution in the central metabolism under PHA accumulation conditions from carbohydrates. Pseudomonas sp. presented a flux three times higher in the pentose phosphate pathway than in Entner-Doudoroff pathway. Burkholderia sacchari showed a flux exclusively in the Entner-Doudoroff pathway operating linear or cyclic. E. coli produced PHA only under growth-associated conditions and presented a higher flux in the Embden-Meyerhof Pathway. These data are key features to improve the PHA yield from carbohydrates as well as to identify other biobased products which could be produced in these bacterial platforms.