Computer models of bacterial cells: from generalized coarsegrained to genome-specific modular models

We discuss a modular modelling framework to rapidly develop mathematical models of bacterial cells that would explicitly link genomic details to cell physiology and population response. An initial step in this approach is the development of a coarse-grained model, describing pseudo-chemical interactions between lumped species. A hybrid model of interest can then be constructed by embedding genome-specific detail for a particular cellular subsystem (e.g. central metabolism), called here a module, into the coarse-grained model. Specifically, a new strategy for sensitivity analysis of the cell division limit cycle is introduced to identify which pseudo-molecular processes should be delumped to implement a particular biological function in a growing cell (e.g. ethanol overproduction or pathogen viability). To illustrate the modeling principles and highlight computational challenges, the Cornell coarsegrained model of Escherichia coli B/r-A is used to benchmark the proposed framework