Changes in environmental temperature regimes significantly affect plant growth, development and reproduction. Within a multigenic process termed acclimation, many plant species of the temperate region are able to adjust their metabolism to low and high temperature. Temperature-induced metabolic reprogramming is a nonlinear process affecting numerous enzyme kinetic reactions and pathways. The analysis of metabolic reprogramming during temperature acclimation is essentially supported by mathematical modeling which enables the study of nonlinear enzyme kinetics in context of metabolic networks and pathway regulation. This chapter introduces mathematical modeling of plant metabolism during a dynamic environmental temperature regime. A focus is laid on kinetic modeling and thermodynamic constraints.
Keywords: Climate change; Enzyme activity; Kinetic modeling; Mathematical modeling; Metabolic network; Plant metabolism; Temperature acclimation; Thermodynamics.