Modeling the Folate Pathway in Escherichia coli

Abstract

Folates are a class of metabolites that are essential to living cells across all life. Because these molecules are especially important in aiding cell division, folates are targets for antibiotics, such as trimethoprim. I aim to model the pathways of folate production and interconversion in Escherichia coli. I began my work by assessing a previously published mathematical model of the E. coli folate pathways, published by Kwon and Rabinowitz, which explored the effects of trimethoprim on the system. I explored the model in depth and found avenues for improvement. My model produced enhancements in accuracy and laid the foundation for future work. In the future, this model can be expanded further and be used to model a variety of other experimental conditions under the effect of trimethoprim.