Deep learning allows genome-scale prediction of Michaelis constants from structural features

PLoS Biol. 2021 Oct 19;19(10):e3001402. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001402. eCollection 2021 Oct.

Abstract

The Michaelis constant KM describes the affinity of an enzyme for a specific substrate and is a central parameter in studies of enzyme kinetics and cellular physiology. As measurements of KM are often difficult and time-consuming, experimental estimates exist for only a minority of enzyme-substrate combinations even in model organisms. Here, we build and train an organism-independent model that successfully predicts KM values for natural enzyme-substrate combinations using machine and deep learning methods. Predictions are based on a task-specific molecular fingerprint of the substrate, generated using a graph neural network, and on a deep numerical representation of the enzyme's amino acid sequence. We provide genome-scale KM predictions for 47 model organisms, which can be used to approximately relate metabolite concentrations to cellular physiology and to aid in the parameterization of kinetic models of cellular metabolism.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Databases, Genetic
  • Deep Learning*
  • Enzymes / metabolism
  • Genome*
  • Kinetics
  • Metabolomics
  • Models, Biological
  • Neural Networks, Computer
  • Substrate Specificity

Substances

  • Enzymes

Grants and funding

This work was funded through grants to M.J.L. by the Volkswagenstiftung (in the "Life?" program) and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (CRC 1310 and, under Germany’s Excellence Strategy, EXC 2048/1, Project ID: 390686111). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.