Comparative analyses of parasites with a comprehensive database of genome-scale metabolic models
Fig 7
Selecting experimental model systems using reaction essentiality.
Single reaction knockouts were performed on unconstrained models to identify the reactions that are essential for generating biomass. Dissimilarity scores were calculated from binary essentiality results using Euclidean distance (root sum-of-squares of differences). A low dissimilarity score of 0 indicates enzyme essentiality is identical between the two models; a high score indicates many differences. Each point represents a pairwise comparison with genera labels on the x-axis. Within genus comparisons are made on the left; across genus comparisons are made on the right. Several examples are highlighted with genome names. Genome-wide reaction essentiality is more similar between Toxoplasma and Cryptosporidium than Toxoplasma and Plasmodium. Mean dissimilarity score is significantly different (by two-sided student’s t-test with multiple testing correction) between every labeled group.