Double and multiple knockout simulations for genome-scale metabolic network reconstructions

BACKGROUND: Constraint-based modeling of genome-scale metabolic network reconstructions has become a widely used approach in computational biology. Flux coupling analysis is a constraint-based method that analyses the impact of single reaction knockouts on other reactions in the network. RESULTS: We present an extension of flux coupling analysis for double and multiple gene or reaction knockouts, and develop corresponding algorithms for an in silico simulation. To evaluate our method, we perform a full single and double knockout analysis on a selection of genome-scale metabolic network reconstructions and compare the results. SOFTWARE: A prototype implementation of double knockout simulation is available at http://hoverboard.io/L4FC.