In the present work both in silico and in vivo methods for flux analysis in plants were
successfully developed and applied for enhanced understanding of plant physiology. Taken
together the in silico metabolic simulations provide detailed molecular insights into plant
functioning particularly by linking in vivo with in silico data. The knowledge gained from
such a systems-biological approach together with the proposed high potential of plants as
biotechnological production platforms especially for compounds requiring much redox power
will help to establish plants as biotechnological factories. For the first time the in vivo
metabolism of an agriculturally relevant crop O. sativa was investigated through
non-stationary 13C-metabolic flux analysis. This allowed elucidation of the in vivo
intracellular carbon partitioning in rice plants and of the plants¿ necessity for futile
cycling of resources thus contributing significantly to our current knowledge on plant
metabolism. In addition the effect of imazapyr an industrially relevant herbicide on rice
metabolism was inspected using the newly established workflow. This first real-life case-study
provides a valuable proof-of-principle and enabled a deeper understanding of the immediate
metabolic effects of the treatment. This method can now be adopted to other crops cell lines
and stress inducers such as abiotic stresses herbicides and fungicides and therefore has
great potential in green biotechnology.
