Patent ID: 8494779

Claim:
A method for screening metabolites essential for the growth of a microorganism using metabolic flux analysis, the method comprising the steps of: (a) selecting a target microorganism and constructing a metabolic network model of the selected microorganism; and (b) inactivating a consumption reaction of each metabolite by setting a value of metabolic consumption reaction to zero in the constructed metabolic network model, analyzing a metabolic flux of each of the metabolites using a computing device processor, and selecting metabolites showing a greater than 50% decrease in cell growth rate compared to the normal growth rate, using Equation 2 below: f = r loss r wild [ Equation ⁢ ⁢ 2 ] wherein r wild represents a normal cell growth rate, and r loss represents a cell growth rate which decreases when the consumption reaction of the relevant metabolite is inactivated; (c) defining utilization of the metabolites selected in step (b) as a flux sum (Φ) represented by Equation 3 below, and then calculating the flux sum (Φ) of each of the metabolites by using the computing device processor: Φ i = ∑ j ∈ P i ⁢ ⁢ S ij ⁢ v j = - ∑ j ∈ C i ⁢ ⁢ S ij ⁢ v j = 1 2 ⁢ ∑ j ⁢ ⁢  S ij ⁢ v j  [ Equation ⁢ ⁢ 3 ] wherein Φ i is the flux sum (Φ) of an i th metabolite, S ij is a stoichiometric coefficient of the i th metabolite in a i th reaction, v i is a metabolic flux of the i th reaction, P i is a set of metabolic reactions producing the i th metabolite, and C i is a set of metabolic reactions consuming the i th metabolite; and (d) determining metabolites showing a decrease or stop in the cell growth rate when the flux sum (Φ) of each metabolite is reduced as metabolites essential for the growth of the microorganism.