ELEMENTARY MODE ANALYSIS FOR IMPROVING PLANT TRAITS

The present invention relates to a method for identifying at least one candidate metabolic conversion step, the modulation of which causes a change of the amount of at least one metabolite of interest in a plant, said method comprising: (a)establishing a stoichiometric network model for the metabolism of the plant cell, plant or plant part including at least one synthesis pathway for the metabolite(s) of interest; (b) calculating a set of all elementary modes for said stoichiometric network model and selecting a set of elementary modes comprising, preferably all, elementary modes for which the flux to the metabolite(s) of interest is not zero; (c) calculating for each elementary mode of step (b) the correlation between (i) the metabolite(s) of interest and (ii) each partial reaction; and (d) identifying at least one candidate metabolic conversion step, the modulation of which causes a change of the amount of at least one metabolite of interest in a plant cell, plant or plant part, based on the correlation calculated in step (c). The present invention further relates to a method for identifying at least two candidate metabolic conversion steps, the combined modulation of which causes a change of the amount of at least one metabolite of interest in a plant. The present invention also relates to a method for generating a plant cell, plant or plant part which produces a changed amount of a metabolite of interest, and to plants producible with said method, as well as to a method for the manufacture of a metabolite of interest comprising obtaining the metabolite of interest from said plant. Moreover, the present invention relates to devices and data carriers related to the present invention and plant cell, plant or plant part comprising expressible constructs selected with the methods of the present invention. La présente invention se rapporte à un procédé permettant d'identifier au moins une étape de conversion métabolique possible, dont la modulation provoque un changement de la quantité d'au moins un métabolite digne d'intérêt dans une plante, ledit procédé comprenant les étapes consistant à : (a) établir un modèle de réseau stœchiométrique pour le métabolisme de la cellule végétale, de la plante ou de la partie de plante comprenant au moins une voie de synthèse pour le ou les métabolites dignes d'intérêt ; (b) calculer un ensemble de tous les modes élémentaires pour ledit modèle de réseau stœchiométrique et sélectionner un ensemble de modes élémentaires comp