Pareto Optimality in Organelle Energy Metabolism Analysis

In low and high eukaryotes, energy is collected or transformed in compartments, the organelles. The rich variety of size, characteristics and density of the organelles makes it difficult to build a general picture. In this paper we make use of the Pareto front analysis to investigate the optimisation of energy metabolism in mitochondria and chloroplasts. Using the Pareto optimality principle, we compare models of organelle metabolism on the basis of single- and multi-objective optimisation, approximation techniques (the Bayesian Automatic Relevance Determination), robustness and pathway sensitivity analysis. Finally, we report the first analysis of the metabolic model for the hydrogenosome of Trichomonas vaginalis, which is found in several protozoan parasites. Our analysis has shown the importance of the Pareto optimality for such comparison and for insights into the evolution of the metabolism from cytoplasmic to organelle bound, involving a model order reduction. We report that Pareto fronts represent an asymptotic analysis useful to describe the metabolism of an organism aimed at maximising concurrently two or more metabolite concentrations.