Evolutionary Time Validation for Metabolic Models

Remove anachronistic reactions from metabolic models for historically-accurate simulations

96.2% of oxygen-producing pathways in modern metabolic models
are temporally inappropriate for early Earth studies

🚨 The Problem

Modern metabolic models contain reactions that evolved long after the time period being studied. This creates fundamental errors when modeling:

  • The Great Oxygenation Event (2.4 Ga)
  • Early life evolution (>2.5 Ga)
  • Biosignature interpretation for exoplanets
  • Historical metabolic reconstructions

💡 How It Works

Our framework validates metabolic models against evolutionary timelines by:

  • Annotating reactions with evolutionary ages
  • Filtering models for geological eras
  • Using confidence-gated validation
  • Removing anachronistic pathways

📊 Validation Results

Applied to 4 phylogenetically diverse organisms, we found that modern models contain ~26× more oxygen pathways than existed in the Archean era.

  • E. coli: 97.4% reactions spurious
  • S. cerevisiae: 97.1% spurious
  • Synechocystis: 92.9% spurious
  • Only catalase predates 2.5 Ga

Analyze Your Model

Upload a metabolic model to validate against evolutionary timelines

Quick Start: Try an Example Model

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