Central carbon metabolism comprises the metabolic pathways in the cell that process nutrients into energy, building blocks and byproducts. To unravel the regulation of this network upon glucose perturbation, several metabolic models have been developed for the microorganism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These dynamic representations have focused on glycolysis and answered multiple research questions, but no commonly applicable model has been presented. This review systematically evaluates the literature to describe the current advances, limitations, and opportunities. Different kinetic models have unraveled key kinetic glycolytic mechanisms. Nevertheless, some uncertainties regarding model topology and parameter values still limit the application to specific cases. Progressive improvements in experimental measurement technologies as well as advances in computational tools create new opportunities to further extend the model scale. Notably, models need to be made more complex to consider the multiple layers of glycolytic regulation and external physiological variables regulating the bioprocess, opening new possibilities for extrapolation and validation. Finally, the onset of new data representative of individual cells will cause these models to evolve from depicting an average cell in an industrial fermenter, to characterizing the heterogeneity of the population, opening new and unseen possibilities for industrial fermentation improvement.
Keywords: central metabolism; complexity; in vivo kinetics; kinetic model; metabolic regulation; parameter estimation; population heterogeneity; stress response; uncertainty; yeast.