BIOL33021/66021 Assessment 1 (2025-26)
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a single-celled green alga widely used as a model organism in plant and algal biology. Its ability to produce lipids and hydrogen under specific conditions makes it a promising candidate for sustainable biofuel production. A genome-scale metabolic model of C. reinhardtii was published in
https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2011.52
You will find the model on your personal account on CoCalc under the path: 2025-26/week6: assessment1/questions
For this assessment you should submit a report of 800 words (± 10%), which should address the following questions:
. Find the reaction that imports acetate into the cell and constrain its flux to zero, then run a flux balance analysis simulation under heterotrophic growth conditions; what is the growth rate?
. Find the antiporter reaction that exchanges fumarate and succinate between the cytosol and the mitochondrion. Give the id, name and formula of the reaction; what is its flux value under the same conditions?
. Run 20 more flux balance analysis simulations for values of acetate uptake ranging from 1 to 20 in increments of 1. Plot the fumarate-succinate antiporter flux as a function of acetate uptake flux; how can these results be interpreted?
Your report should be structured in the style. of a mini lab report containing the following sections:
. Introduction: give some background about the use of C. reinhardtii in biotechnology and how metabolic modelling can assist; state the aims of the report.
. Methods: explain how you addressed the questions above.
. Results: describe and interpret the results of the questions above, using figures and/or tables to present the data you obtained.
. Discussion: discuss the main qualities and limitations of this approach and potential future work.
. Bibliography: list of references used in your report.
The word count excludes figure/table legends and bibliography; no abstract is required.
Your report should be submitted on Canvas by the advertised deadline: under the BIOL33021&66021 unit, go to Assignments, then Assessment 1 Submission Link. You should only submit your report on Canvas, your code should be saved in your CoCalc folder and will be directly collected from there.
Marking scale:
Introduction: 20 %
Methods: 10 %
Code: 10 %
Results: 30 %
Discussion: 20 %
Figures/tables and presentation: 10 %