MAMBA: a model-driven, constraint-based multiomic integration method

The inclusion of omic data into constraint-based modeling (CBM) has improved metabolic network characterization of biological models. However, the integration of semi-quantitative metabolomic data into CBM remains challenging. Here, we present MAMBA (Metabolic Adjustment via Multiomic Blocks Aggregation), a CBM approach that enables the use of semi-quantitative metabolomic data together with a gene-centric omic data type (e.g. transcriptomics, ChIP-seq or chromatin accessibility data, among others), and the combination of different time points and conditions. MAMBA outperformed other methods in terms of metabolic network characterization and metabolite prediction accuracy. As a case study, we applied MAMBA to a yeast multiomic dataset with time series design where two different yeast strains where exposed to heat stress. MAMBA captured known biology of heat stress in yeast and identified novel affected metabolic pathways. MAMBA was implemented as an integer linear programming (ILP) problem to guarantee efficient computation, and coded for MATLAB (freely available at github.com/ConesaLab/MAMBA).