E. Coli Whole Cell Model by Covert Lab Time series run variant by 
Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16To modify the nutrients as a function of time, with To select a time series we can use something like:As mentioned in
python runscripts/manual/runSim.py --variant nutrientTimeSeries 25 25python runscripts/manual/runSim.py --help, nutrientTimeSeries is one of the choices from github.com/CovertLab/WholeCellEcoliRelease/blob/7e4cc9e57de76752df0f4e32eca95fb653ea64e4/models/ecoli/sim/variants/__init__.py#L5725 25 means to start from index 25 and also end at 25, so running just one simulation. 25 27 would run 25 then 26 and then 27 for example.The timeseries with index 25 is so we understand that it starts with extra amino acids in the medium, which benefit the cell, and half way through those are removed at time 1200s = 20 minutes. We would therefore expect the cell to start expressing amino acid production genes exactly at that point.
reconstruction/ecoli/flat/condition/timeseries/000025_cut_aa.tsv and contains"time (units.s)" "nutrients"
0 "minimal_plus_amino_acids"
1200 "minimal"nutrients likely means condition in that file however, see bug report with 1 1 failing: github.com/CovertLab/WholeCellEcoliRelease/issues/24When we do this the simulation ends in:so we see that the doubling time was faster than the one with minimal conditions of
Simulation finished:
- Length: 0:34:23
- Runtime: 0:08:030:42:49, which makes sense, since during the first 20 minutes the cell had extra amino acid nutrients at its disposal.The output directory now contains simulation output data under
out/manual/nutrientTimeSeries_000025/. Let's run analysis and plots for that:python runscripts/manual/analysisVariant.py &&
python runscripts/manual/analysisCohort.py --variant 25 &&
python runscripts/manual/analysisMultigen.py --variant 25 &&
python runscripts/manual/analysisSingle.py --variant 25We can now compare the outputs of this run to the default
wildtype_000000 run from Section "Install and first run".out/manual/plotOut/svg_plots/massFractionSummary.svg: because we now have two variants in the sameout/folder,wildtype_000000andnutrientTimeSeries_000025, we now see a side by side comparision of both on the same graph!The run variant where we started with amino acids initially grows faster as expected, because the cell didn't have to make it's own amino acids, so growth is a bit more efficient.
The following plots from under
out/manual/wildtype_000000/000000/{generation_000000,nutrientTimeSeries_000025}/000000/plotOut/svg_plots have been manually joined side-by-side with:for f in out/manual/wildtype_000000/000000/generation_000000/000000/plotOut/svg_plots/*; do
echo $f
svg_stack.py \
--direction h \
out/manual/wildtype_000000/000000/generation_000000/000000/plotOut/svg_plots/$(basename $f) \
out/manual/nutrientTimeSeries_000025/000000/generation_000000/000000/plotOut/svg_plots/$(basename $f) \
> tmp/$(basename $f)
done
Amino acid counts
. Source. aaCounts.svg:- default: quantities just increase
- amino acid cut: there is an abrupt fall at 20 minutes when we cut off external supply, presumably because it takes some time for the cell to start producing its own
External exchange fluxes of amino acids
. Source. aaExchangeFluxes.svg:- default: no exchanges
- amino acid cut: for all graphs except phenylalanine (PHE), either the cell was intaking the AA (negative flux), and that intake goes to 0 when the supply is cut, or the flux is always 0.
mRNA count of highly expressed mRNAs
. Source. From file expression_rna_03_high.svg. Each of the entries is a gene using the conventional gene naming convention of xyzW, e.g. here's the BioCyc for the first entry, tufA: biocyc.org/gene?orgid=ECOLI&id=EG11036, which comments Elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) is the most abundant protein in E. coli.
External exchange fluxes
. Source. mediaExcange.svg: this one is similar to aaExchangeFluxes.svg, but it also tracks other substances. The color version makes it easier to squeeze more substances in a given space, but you lose the shape of curves a bit. The title seems reversed: red must be excretion, since that's where glucose (GLC) is.The substances are different between the default and amino acid cut graphs, they seem to be the most exchanged substances. On the amino cut graph, first we see the cell intaking most (except phenylalanine, which is excreted for some reason). When we cut amino acids, the uptake of course stops.
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IDEs are absolutely essential for developing complex software.
The funny thing is that you don't notice this until someone shows it to you. But once you see it, there is not turning back, just like Steve Jobs customers don't know what they want quote.
Unfortunately, after the Fall of Eclipse (archive), the IDE landscape in 2019 is horrible and split between:
Programmers of the world: unite! Focus on one IDE, and make it work for all languages and all build systems. Give it all the features that Eclipse has, but none of the bugginess. Work with top project to make sure the IDE works for all top projects.
Projects of the world: support one IDE, with in-tree configuration. Complex integration is often required between the IDE and the build system, and successful projects must to that once for all developers. Either do this, or watch you complex project wither away.
Build tool maintainers: make it possible for IDEs to support your tool! E.g., implement JSON Compilation Database output so that IDEs can read the exact compiler commands from that, in order to automatically determine how files should be parsed! Or better, just use libllvm in your IDE itself as the main parser.
Ciro is evaluating some IDEs at: github.com/cirosantilli/ide-test-projects
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A Program Temporary Fix (PTF) is a solution or patch provided by software vendors to address specific issues within their software products. PTFs are typically released to correct bugs, enhance performance, or add new features temporarily until a more comprehensive or permanent update can be deployed, such as a full version release or major software update. PTFs are commonly used in various software systems, including operating systems, applications, and enterprise systems, and they are especially prevalent in mainframe environments.
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Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project
Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
Intro to OurBigBook
. Source. We have two killer features:
- topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculusArticles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
- a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
- a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
Figure 1. Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page. View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivativeVideo 2. OurBigBook Web topics demo. Source. - local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
- to OurBigBook.com to get awesome multi-user features like topics and likes
- as HTML files to a static website, which you can host yourself for free on many external providers like GitHub Pages, and remain in full control
Figure 3. Visual Studio Code extension installation.
Figure 4. Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation.
Figure 5. Web editor. You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.Video 3. Edit locally and publish demo. Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.Video 4. OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo. Source. 
- Infinitely deep tables of contents:
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact