AUTHOR=Inwongwan Sahutchai , Pekkoh Jeeraporn , Pumas Chayakorn , Sattayawat Pachara 

TITLE=Metabolic network reconstruction of Euglena gracilis: Current state, challenges, and applications

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1143770

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2023.1143770

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>A metabolic model, representing all biochemical reactions in a cell, is a prerequisite for several approaches in systems biology used to explore the metabolic phenotype of an organism. Despite the use of <italic>Euglena</italic> in diverse industrial applications and as a biological model, there is limited understanding of its metabolic network capacity. The unavailability of the completed genome data and the highly complex evolution of <italic>Euglena</italic> are significant obstacles to the reconstruction and analysis of its genome-scale metabolic model. In this mini-review, we discuss the current state and challenges of metabolic network reconstruction in <italic>Euglena gracilis</italic>. We have collated and present the available relevant data for the metabolic network reconstruction of <italic>E. gracilis</italic>, which could be used to improve the quality of the metabolic model of <italic>E. gracilis</italic>. Furthermore, we deliver the potential applications of the model in metabolic engineering. Altogether, it is supposed that this mini-review would facilitate the investigation of metabolic networks in <italic>Euglena</italic> and further lay out a direction for model-assisted metabolic engineering.</p>