Protein allocation determines the activity of cellular pathways and affects growth across all organisms. Therefore, different experimental and machine learning approaches have been developed to quantify and predict protein abundance and how they are allocated to different cellular functions, respectively. Yet, despite advances in protein quantification, it remains challenging to predict condition-specific allocation of enzymes in metabolic networks. Here, using protein-constrained metabolic models, we propose a family of constrained-based approaches, termed PARROT, to predict how much of each enzyme is used based on the principle of minimizing the difference between a reference and an alternative growth condition. To this end, PARROT variants model the minimization of enzyme reallocation using four different (combinations of) distance functions. We demonstrate that the PARROT variant that minimizes the Manhattan distance between the enzyme allocation of a reference and an alternative condition outperforms existing approaches based on the parsimonious distribution of fluxes or enzymes for both Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Further, we show that the combined minimization of flux and enzyme allocation adjustment leads to inconsistent predictions. Together, our findings indicate that minimization of protein allocation rather than flux redistribution is a governing principle determining steady-state pathway activity for microorganism grown in alternative growth conditions.
Author summary: Protein allocation determines the activity of cells and affects diverse traits across all organisms. However, prediction of protein allocation, particularly for conditions that do not result at optimal growth and physiology, remains a very challenging problem. In this study, we present an approach called PARROT to predict how cells allocate their proteins in different conditions. We tested different variants of PARROT by considering different objectives within a constraint-based formulation and by how much resource allocation information is used to guide predictions. We found that minimizing adjustments in protein allocation, rather than flux phenotypes, is a key principle that microorganisms use under alternative growth conditions. By integrating this principle into our approaches and leveraging quantitative proteomics data, PARROT provides more accurate predictions of protein allocation in unseen conditions in comparison to existing contenders. Therefore, PARROT can help in advancing our understanding of protein allocation under different conditions and its physiological implications. Further, we can gain valuable insights into cellular responses and adaptive strategies across different environments.
Constraint-based approaches have been employed to simulate and predict phenotypes based on genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) [[
The parameters included in pcGEMs are: (i) the enzyme turnover numbers, k
Computational methods have also been developed to predict protein abundance, mostly based on data-driven models. These models often explore the central dogma of molecular biology by assessing the relationship between transcription and protein biosynthesis. Notable approaches to estimate protein abundance include the joint learning approach devised by Li et al [[
Aside from machine learning models, constraint-based approaches have also been used to predict protein abundance. Using approaches such as MOMENT [[
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where v
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Assuming that pcGEMs that integrate proteomics data predict flux distributions that reflect the corresponding metabolic state, we ask whether the reverse operation could be employed to predict proteomics data that match a given physiological state. Moreover, as cells are exposed to stresses or changing environmental conditions, the current growth state is disturbed, leading to an alternative growth state in which gene expression, regulatory pathways and metabolic flux are changed in adjusting the cell to the new physiological condition [[
Here we propose PARROT (Fig 1), for Protein allocation Adjustment foR alteRnative envirOnmenTs, a family of constraint-based approaches for prediction of protein abundances for alternative growth conditions using protein abundances measured in a reference state. Our proposed approach is inspired by Minimization of Metabolic Adjustment (MOMA) [[
Graph: Fig 1 Workflow of PARROT to predict enzyme usage for alternative growth conditions.PARROT uses experimental proteomics data from a reference growth condition, and experimental physiological parameters from an alternative growth condition in a protein-constrained model. The proteomics data from the reference state is pre-processed by integrating the data in a pcGEM using the GECKO Toolbox 2 and allowing flexibility in its values. The proteomics data from the alternative state is used to generate a baseline, which is in turn used for comparison with predictions from the PARROT variants.
We used PARROT to predict the enzyme usage distribution for 19 growth conditions under constraints provided by experimental data. First, we built a baseline for comparison with predictions from PARROT (Fig 1). To this end, we integrated the experimental proteomics measurements obtained from Lahtvee et al. [[
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The first variant of PARROT (referred as LP1) minimizes the Manhattan distance between E
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Graph: Fig 2 Comparative performance analysis of PARROT with proteomics data from S. cerevisiae.All protein abundance values were log10-transformed prior to comparisons. a. Pearson correlation calculated between predicted enzyme distribution and the baseline obtained from minimizing the first norm of the experimental enzyme usage distribution. The four variants of PARROT are denoted as LP1 (Manhattan distance of enzyme distributions), LP2 (weighted Manhattan distance, considering flux and enzyme distributions), QP1 (Euclidean distance of enzyme distributions), and QP2 (weighted Euclidean distance of flux and enzyme distributions). The performance of PARROT was compared to pFBA and its modified version EsKcat (first norm of enzyme usage), see Methods. A pairwise Wilcoxon rank sum assesses the statistical significance: **** p-value < 1∙10−5, *** p-value < 2∙10−4, ** p-value < 5∙10−4. b. Assessment of model performance based on the root median squared error (RMdSE). A pairwise Wilcoxon rank sum assesses the statistical significance: **** p-value < 9∙10−6, *** p-value < 2∙10−5. Black significance bar indicates comparisons to pFBA. Red significance bar indicates comparison to EsKcat.
The second variant of PARROT, referred as QP1, minimizes the Euclidean distance between E
The third variant of PARROT, referred as LP2, minimizes the weighted sum of the Manhattan distance between enzyme usage distributions and the Manhattan distance between flux distributions. Thus, this variant also considers the metabolic fluxes of each condition along with the enzyme usage distribution. As observed for the other variants, LP2 outperformed pFBA and its modified implementation, when comparing the median of the calculated Pearson correlations between the baseline and E
The fourth and final variant of PARROT, QP2, minimizes the weighted sum of the Euclidean distance between enzyme usage distributions and the Euclidean distance between flux distributions. Unlike other variants, QP2 did not achieve a higher median Pearson correlation when comparing the predictions to the baseline, but it was better than the null model. However, the root median squared error (RMdSE) between predictions and the baseline was the lowest among variants, being comparable to pFBA and its modified implementation (Fig 2B). Taken together, the results demonstrated that PARROT achieved good predictive performance based on the data from S. cerevisiae when compared to pFBA and its modified implementation.
To verify if the conclusions from PARROT hold in another unicellular model organism, we applied it to predict enzyme allocation E
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The prediction of E
Graph: Fig 3 Comparative performance analysis of PARROT with proteomics data from E. coli.All protein abundance values were log10-transformed prior to comparisons. a. Pearson correlation calculated between predicted enzyme usage distribution and the baseline obtained from minimizing the first norm of the experimental enzyme usage distribution. A pairwise Wilcoxon rank sum assesses the statistical significance: **** p-value < 2∙10−11, *** p-value < 2∙10−4, ** p-value < 6∙10−3, * p-value < 3∙10−2. b. Assessment of model performance based on the RMdSE in E. coli. A pairwise Wilcoxon rank sum assesses the statistical significance: **** p-value < 1∙10−5. Black significance bar indicates comparisons to pFBA. Red significance bar indicates comparison to EsKcat.
To further evaluate the predictions made by PARROT, we investigated if the construction of the baseline could impact the correlations. Thus, we reconstructed the baseline by minimizing the 2-norm of the vector
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The comparisons performed using predictions obtained for E. coli were also consistent with different variants of PARROT that outperformed pFBA. Considering the Pearson correlations, the LP1 and the LP2 variants also had the highest median correlations and were significantly different to pFBA. Likewise, these PARROT variants also showed significant difference to the modified implementation of pFBA (S3 Fig). The comparison of RMdSE values were also consistent with this observation, as the errors were comparable to the positive controls (S4 Fig). Altogether, these results highlight the robustness of estimations of E
Given that LP2 and QP2 make use of a weighting factor λ, we were interested in how different λ values impact the predictions. We used λ values ranging from 0 (no fluxes used) to 1 (fluxes and enzyme usages equally considered). We also considered a scenario of λ values ranging from 0.1 to 1 in order to probe different solutions where metabolic fluxes are always considered. We considered a λ value to be optimal if it resulted in the highest Pearson correlation to the baseline. In the first scenario, for both S. cerevisiae and E. coli the most frequent optimal λ was 0, with decreasing correlation values as λ values increased (Fig 4A). In the second scenario, the optimal λ values were more equally distributed, with S. cerevisiae having a higher frequency of lower values (Fig 4B). For E. coli, lower λ values were also frequent, while also having a λ of 1 slighly more frequent than a λ of 0.2 (Fig 4B). Taken together, these results indicate that the problem of minimizing enzyme usage contributes more to predictions than minimizing metabolic fluxes.
Graph: Fig 4 Optimal λ values across conditions and PARROT variants.The optima λ value was determined by optimising the LP2 and QP2 variants and finding the value that outputs predictions with the highest Pearson correlation when compared to the baseline. Blue bars correspond to S. cerevisiae, and orange bars correspond to E. coli. a. Number of occurrences of an optimal λ value in a range of 0 to 1. Note that a λ value of zero means that no fluxes are used for the objective, being equivalent to the LP1 and LP2 variants. b. Number of occurrences of an optimal λ value in a range of 0.1 to 1. In this scenario, fluxes are always used for the objective.
Here we proposed a family of constraint-based approaches, termed PARROT, that address the problem of predicting reallocation of protein abundance from a reference growth condition to an alternative growth condition. PARROT is based on the principle that organisms tend to minimally adjust cellular physiology between growth conditions to make effective use of resources [[
Understanding how cells adjust enzyme allocation during growth conditions apart from the physiological optimum might prove useful to study, for example, the adaptability of yeasts when exposed to ethanol during fermentation. Ethanol hinders growth and enacts several changes to membrane structure and function, causes protein denaturing and metabolic imbalances [[
By comparing the predictions to a baseline constructed with experimental proteomics measurements for alternative growth conditions, we found that PARROT predicted protein abundances with very good agreement with the baseline. In addition, we demonstrated that these predictions were consistent and robust to how the baseline is constructed. The performance of PARROT also holds for two model organisms, S. cerevisiae and E. coli, highlighting the general application of the principle of minimal protein adjustment on which the predictions are based.
From the different variants of PARROT, LP1 (minimization of the Manhattan distance of enzyme usage distributions) and LP2 (the minimization of the weighted sum of the Manhattan distance of enzyme usage and Manhattan distance of flux distributions) were the best contenders across conditions for both S. cerevisiae and E. coli. The variant QP1 (minimization of the Euclidean distance of enzyme usage distributions) resulted in good, but inconsistent performance between S. cerevisiae and E. coli. For QP2 (the minimization of the weighted sum of the Euclidean distance of enzyme usage and Euclidean distance of flux distributions), it had poor results for S. cerevisiae, while having good results for E. coli, albeit worse than the other variants. This agrees with the fact that the first norm distance is the natural metric for enzyme abundances in the cell, because a change in enzyme concentration requires ribosomal activity that scales linearly with the enzyme abundance [[
The baseline approach devised to assess the predictions allows for a fair comparison between the predicted enzyme usage distribution and the experimental protein abundance values. In constraining the pcGEMs with the proteomics measurements, the experimental values are first readjusted to match the enzyme levels that actually carry flux in the model, since more protein is produced than actually needed by the cell [[
The parameter λ is a factor that weights the usage of metabolic fluxes for the optimisation problem. By varying this value between 0 and 1, we could assess how much the minimization of metabolic fluxes contributes to the problem of predicting enzyme usage. A λ value of 0 would render the variants LP2 and QP2 equivalent to LP1 and QP1, respectively, as metabolic flux would be neglected in the optimal solutions. A λ value of 1, in the other hand, renders LP2 and QP2 as equivalent to using a pcGEM with the canonical implementation of MOMA, which considers all fluxes equally. When the two PARROT variants are free to vary λ between 0 and 1, the optimum is reached for lower λ values. This can be explained by the experimental observation that in changing environments, cells adopt a strategy of initially adjusting gene expression, which subsequently results in shifts in protein allocation. Consequently, this leads to subsequent changes in metabolic flux [[
Despite the advantages of using a baseline, predictions of enzyme levels using Eq (
Nevertheless, other approaches for estimating in vivo protein concentrations would still need to overcome the underestimation of protein concentrations of pcGEMs, especially by considering the proteome reserve. Interestingly, Alter et al. [[
To find the enzyme distribution vector that matches the enzyme usage of a cell growing in alternative growth conditions, we propose PARROT, an approach that minimizes the distance between a reference enzyme allocation E
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where
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where the parameter λ is a weighting factor chosen by inspecting the difference between the norms of enzyme allocation and the flux distributions. We solved the corresponding problems under the same constraints as in Eq 2. We implemented and solved the problems in MATLAB (The MathWorks Inc., Natick, Massachusetts) using the COBRA Toolbox [[
To test the variants of the proposed approach, PARROT, we used the pcGEMs of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, ecYeast8 [[
For S. cerevisiae, we used the protein measurements from Chen and Nielsen [[
For E. coli, we used the proteomics data for 20 different growth conditions collected in [[
From the protein measurements obtained from Davidi et al. [[
The protein measurements,
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The resulting enzyme usage distribution,
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We also performed a robustness analysis by checking the effect of minimizing the 2-norm of
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We compared the predictions of our approaches to those obtained using an extension of parsimonious enzyme usage FBA (pFBA) [[
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where v
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For pFBA and the modified implementation, we applied the same constraints on nutrient uptake rates and growth rates as for the four approaches assessed previously, and calculated the Pearson correlations and the RMdSE. Lastly, as a negative control to benchmark the performance of PARROT, we equated E
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To systematically assess the impact of different lambda values, we optimised the LP2 and QP2 variants using λ values ranging from 0 (no fluxes used) to 1 (fluxes and enzyme usages equally considered). Additionally, we optimised the LP2 and QP2 variants using λ values ranging from 0.1 to 1 in order to make sure fluxes are always used for the objective function. In both scenarios, we calculated the Pearson correlation to the baseline for each λ value. We determined the optimal λ value as the value that outputs predictions with the highest Pearson correlation when compared to the first norm baseline.
S1 Table. Experimental proteomics measurements used for yeast.
(DOCX)
S2 Table. Experimental proteomics measurements used for Escherichia coli.
(DOCX)
S1 Fig. Pearson correlation calculated between predicted enzyme distribution and the baseline obtained from minimizing the 2-norm of the experimental enzyme usage distribution, in S. cerevisiae.
All values were log10-transformed prior to comparisons. A pairwise Wilcoxon rank sum assesses the statistical significance: ** p-value < 0.0009. Black significance bar indicates comparisons to pFBA. Red significance bar indicates comparisons to EsKcat.
(TIFF)
S2 Fig. Assessment of model performance based on the root median squared error (RMdSE).
The minimization of the 2-norm of the experimental enzyme usage distribution in S. cerevisiae was used. All values were log10-transformed prior to comparisons.
(TIFF)
S3 Fig. Pearson correlation calculated between predicted enzyme distribution and the baseline obtained from minimizing the 2-norm of the experimental enzyme usage distribution, in E. coli.
All values were log10-transformed prior to comparisons. A pairwise Wilcoxon rank sum assesses the statistical significance: **** p-value < 0.000005, * p-value < 0.03. Black significance bar indicates comparisons to pFBA. Red significance bar indicates comparisons to EsKcat.
(TIFF)
S4 Fig. Assessment of model performance based on the root median squared error (RMdSE).
The minimization of the second norm of the experimental enzyme usage distribution in E. coli was used. All values were log10-transformed prior to comparisons.
(TIFF)
Ouzounis Christos A. Academic Editor Finley Stacey D. Section Editor
20 Jun 2023
Dear Dr. Nikoloski,
Thank you very much for submitting your manuscript "PARROT: Prediction of enzyme abundances using protein constrained metabolic models" for consideration at PLOS Computational Biology.
As with all papers reviewed by the journal, your manuscript was reviewed by members of the editorial board and by several independent reviewers. In light of the reviews (below this email), we would like to invite the resubmission of a significantly-revised version that takes into account the reviewers' comments.
In particular, the reviewers suggest edits to better clarify the results and substantiate your claims.
We cannot make any decision about publication until we have seen the revised manuscript and your response to the reviewers' comments. Your revised manuscript is also likely to be sent to reviewers for further evaluation.
When you are ready to resubmit, please upload the following:
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Important additional instructions are given below your reviewer comments.
Please prepare and submit your revised manuscript within 60 days. If you anticipate any delay, please let us know the expected resubmission date by replying to this email. Please note that revised manuscripts received after the 60-day due date may require evaluation and peer review similar to newly submitted manuscripts.
Thank you again for your submission. We hope that our editorial process has been constructive so far, and we welcome your feedback at any time. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or comments.
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Christos A. Ouzounis
Academic Editor
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Stacey Finley
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Reviewer's Responses to Questions
Reviewer #1: The authors present their method, PARROT, which employs constraint-based approaches for minimizing the enzyme allocations to assess the protein allocations in microorganisms growing under different suboptimal conditions. These constraint-based approaches attempt at optimizing the enzyme allocations rather than other contending approaches which rely on flux redistributions. The authors benchmarked the performance of their approach/es on two model microorganisms---E. coli and S. cerevisiae---and propose the use of protein-constrained genome-scale metabolic models (pcGEMs) for studying microbes in different conditions.
Major Issues:
The authors can easily find suitable literature from antimicrobial resistance where microbes, like the superbug ESKAPE pathogens, evolve and continue to grow even under the effect of antibiotics---the suboptimal growth conditions. There are studies that have reported evidences of a microbial strain becoming resistant to an antibiotic under prolonged exposures.
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Another avenue for reference literature could be the clinical growth of microbial communities using selective enrichment media.
2. The Results section should be rewritten to document the specifics and performance details of all approaches being compared/benchmarked. There are subsections titling PARROT to have outperformed other contending methods, but this is an inference to be made from the specific results. The exact specifics about the differences and similarities in results from different approaches are either not well documented/highlighted or are mentioned in the supplementary material. Therefore, from a reader's point of view, the actual results and performance of PARROT are not easy to follow and interpret.
Reviewer #2: PARROT: Prediction of enzyme abundances using protein constrained metabolic models
Summary:
This manuscript introduces a method for calculating Protein allocation Adjustment foR suboptimal enviROnmenTs (PARROT). With this method, the authors aim to study the metabolic phenotype of new, suboptimal conditions. The method is based on the principle of minimal adjustment of the proteome starting from a reference state. This is represented in the objective function which minimizes the distance between the reference condition and the suboptimal conditions. The authors compared different distance metrics (Manhattan and Euclidean distance) and the effect of adding the minimization of the flux distance to the objective functions. They found that for models of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli, their method outperformed normal pFBA (minimizing the sum of all fluxes). Furthermore, they observed that the adding minimization of difference in flux distributions does not improve the results, even worsens it.
Major comments
General:
• Variants are used with different intentions (different conditions or different distance functions). This is confusing for the reader. Please be concise in how you refer to the different models or distance functions
Abstract:
• L. 21-22: In this sentence, you try to explain the main function of PARROT. I think this sentence is confusing for someone who hasn't read the paper yet, since the meaning of 'enzyme allocation' and 'enzyme allocation adjustment' is unclear from the first part of the abstract. I recommend clarifying these terms or rephrasing to something a lay reader can understand.
• L 25: From the abstract it is unclear between what the distance is calculated. This could be easily added by replacing 'of enzyme allocations' with 'between the allocation of enzymes of a reference and suboptimal condition'
Materials and methods:
• In the code 5% flexibility is allowed on the growth rate, which is not described in the Materials and methods.
• L. 357: It is not clear if 'values' refer to the original protein measurements or to the relaxed protein values.
• L. 382: What does 'The second norm in constructing a baseline' mean in mathematical terms? This is not clear from the text and is important in interpreting this analysis.
Results:
• L. 132: '18-336' and L. 156: '19-141'. Why is the range of number of enzymes in the predicted suboptimal conditions so wide? How does this influence the interpretation of the results? I can imagine that the number of predictions influence the value of the accuracy metrics.
• L. 140-141: Here you mention that the kcat values are used as direct measure of the enzyme usage. What does this mean? Do you mean that you use the values of the enzyme variables as enzyme concentrations? I miss a description of this validation method in the 'Methods' section.
• l. 153: Why did you choose the smallest dilution rate as the reference condition? What is the motivation for this?
• Figure 2, 3, S2 and S3: These type of plots do not give a FAIR visualization of the results. Due to the scale of the plot, the distribution of the data in each box is impaired. I suggest adjusting the scale and trying out different ways of data visualization, such as a violin plot with individual data-points or even a raincloud plot.
• L. 189: Consistent with what? You can clarify this by adding 'with this observation' after 'consistent'.
Discussion:
• L. 199-202 and 241-255: In the Results you describe the effect of alternating lambda on the occurrence of higher/lower Pearson correlation values. Later, in the Discussion you explain the meaning of a lambda value of 1 or 0. This part contains sufficient technical explanations, but I miss the biological explanation of this factor. What mechanism does this represent? What did you learn about Biology from this result?
• L. 280: 'underestimating capacity' I think capacity is not the correct word here. Capacity is a feature, not a result. I would use 'the underestimation of protein concentrations' instead.
• L. 281: Another approach is to specifically consider un/under-used enzymes as a separate protein sector as done in Alter et al. (2021) (https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00625-20). Consider discussing/citing this source.
Additional minor comments:
General: the use of 'suboptimal' as term for the condition which is not the reference condition is questionable. For example, in the chemostat cultures, you choose the lower growth rate as reference condition, making the other conditions thus 'suboptimal'. In terms of biology this is incorrect: the cells are growing even faster in these conditions. I would choose a word as 'alternative' condition instead.
l. 21, l. 294: I think the term 'enzyme allocations' is confusing, as allocation is not commonly used in plural. Perhaps 'the allocation of enzymes' suits better here?
l. 178: 'than' should be 'compared to'
l.180: The following sentence: 'As observed for comparisons using the first norm baseline' could be replaced by: 'As observed in the comparisons with the first norm baseline'. In my opinion, this would clarify the message of what is compared with what.
l. 233: 'using' should be 'with'
l. 266-267: 'is that cell overexpress' could be replaced by 'cells overexpress'
l. 293: 'associated flux state' A flux state cannot be performed, as it is a state. You can replace part of this sentence with: 'to perform growth and to maintain the associated flux state' or 'for growth and the associated flux state'
l. 355, 357, 574: 'to flexibilise' is not an English verb. You can replace this by 'to allow flexibility in the enzyme usage constraints' or 'relaxing the enzyme usage constraints'.
Code on GitHub:
'ptotREF = 0.61;
f_REF = 0.4;
sigma_REF = 0.4;
f_STR = 0.4;
sigma_STR = 0.4;'
Where do these values originate from and what do they represent? Please include comments or documentation to interpret these values. What is the source of these numbers (or the assumptions made to define them)?
Using a dummy example on for example a core model to get to know the programming interface would be appreciated.
Reviewer #3: See attachment. I've left the original.odt file there in case you want to put your replies directly there.
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Reviewer #1: Yes
Reviewer #2: Yes
Reviewer #3: Yes
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Reviewer #1: Yes: Kiran Gajanan Javkar
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Attachment.
Submitted filename: parrot_comments.odt
Attachment.
Submitted filename: parrot_comments.pdf
8 Aug 2023
Attachment.
Submitted filename: Response_to_reviewers.docx
Ouzounis Christos A. Academic Editor Finley Stacey D. Section Editor
5 Sep 2023
Dear Dr. Nikoloski,
Thank you very much for submitting your manuscript "PARROT: Prediction of enzyme abundances using protein-constrained metabolic models" for consideration at PLOS Computational Biology. As with all papers reviewed by the journal, your manuscript was reviewed by members of the editorial board and by several independent reviewers. The reviewers appreciated the attention to an important topic. Based on the reviews, we are likely to accept this manuscript for publication, providing that you modify the manuscript according to the review recommendations.
The reviewers have recognized the effort put into the revised submission, but raised some minor comments. We believe these points can be addressed in an updated submission.
Please prepare and submit your revised manuscript within 30 days. If you anticipate any delay, please let us know the expected resubmission date by replying to this email.
When you are ready to resubmit, please upload the following:
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Important additional instructions are given below your reviewer comments.
Thank you again for your submission to our journal. We hope that our editorial process has been constructive so far, and we welcome your feedback at any time. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or comments.
Sincerely,
Christos A. Ouzounis
Associate Editor
PLOS Computational Biology
Stacey Finley
Section Editor
PLOS Computational Biology
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Reviewer's Responses to Questions
Reviewer #1: I appreciate the authors for their efforts in updating the manuscript to incorporate the reviewers' feedback. I believe it has improved the manuscript substantially.
Having said that, there are still a few concerns that need to be addressed before this manuscript is accepted for publication:
Additionally, some sentences have been worded in a bit convoluted manner while some other sentence combinations do not have a grammatical concordance that is easier to follow. For instance, the second sentence of the Abstract reads "Therefore, different experimental and machine learning approaches have been developed to quantify and predict protein abundances, respectively". The sentence structure suggests that it is contextual reasoning provided for what it described in the previous sentence. However, the previous sentence describes 'protein allocation', which is not mentioned in the following sentence at all. Such paraphrasing makes it quite difficult for a reader to follow the text. It is recommended that the authors proofread their manuscript with an end-reader in mind, preferably reviewing it with an English language expert, so that the presented content is easier to follow.
- 2. Line 101-102: "...the optimal growth state is disturbed". The authors need to define/describe what they refer to as the optimal growth state and the associated disturbance to it.
- 3. In the results section, the authors provide a count range of the enzymes by each model and indicate that since this count is similar to the experimental count, their model is performing better than the counterpart (pFBA). However, it is unclear how are count ranges alone sufficient to ascertain a better performance. Shouldn't the actual enzymes, themselves, be matching or similar? Alongside, the associated protein allocation counts also need to be accounted for, isn't it?
- 4. In lines 177--180, the authors mention their reasoning about their choice of the dilution rate while accounting for aerobic growth and metabolic shift prevention. This also raises a concern about the operational ranges for each of the 4 prediction models. The authors should describe the conditions that need to be satisfied for their proposed model/s to be suitable for these predictions.
Reviewer #2: Thank you for properly revising your manuscript. The adaptions and changes you made are adequate and do sufficiently consider the former concerns.
Reviewer #3: I thank the authors for considering my comments, as well as the comments from other reviewers. I am satisfied with the answers, and recommend to accept the manuscript.
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Reviewer #1: Yes
Reviewer #2: Yes
Reviewer #3: Yes
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12 Sep 2023
Attachment.
Submitted filename: Response_to_reviewers.docx
Ouzounis Christos A. Academic Editor Finley Stacey D. Section Editor
29 Sep 2023
Dear Dr. Nikoloski,
We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript 'PARROT: Prediction of enzyme abundances using protein-constrained metabolic models' has been provisionally accepted for publication in PLOS Computational Biology.
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Best regards,
Christos A. Ouzounis
Academic Editor
PLOS Computational Biology
Stacey Finley
Section Editor
PLOS Computational Biology
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Reviewer's Responses to Questions
Comments to the Authors:
Please note here if the review is uploaded as an attachment.
Reviewer #1: I thanks the authors for incorporating the feedback provided with my earlier review. I understand the authors' constraints or limitations with respect to the results benchmarking, but would sincerely like to have a better results benchmarking beyond just showing a similarity in the counts from two approaches.
Having said that, I am largely satisfied with the current manuscript, which I believe to be much improved than the earlier submission/s.
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Reviewer #1: None
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Reviewer #1: Yes: Kiran Gajanan Javkar
Ouzounis Christos A. Academic Editor Finley Stacey D. Section Editor
14 Oct 2023
PCOMPBIOL-D-23-00821R2
PARROT: Prediction of enzyme abundances using protein-constrained metabolic models
Dear Dr Nikoloski,
I am pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been formally accepted for publication in PLOS Computational Biology. Your manuscript is now with our production department and you will be notified of the publication date in due course.
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With kind regards,
Zsofia Freund
PLOS Computational Biology | Carlyle House, Carlyle Road, Cambridge CB4 3DN | United Kingdom ploscompbiol@plos.org | Phone +44 (0) 1223-442824 |
We thank Marius Arend, Philipp Wendering and Eduardo Almeida for their critical discussion and comments on this study.
By Mauricio Alexander de Moura Ferreira; Wendel Batista da Silveira and Zoran Nikoloski
Reported by Author; Author; Author