Autor(es):
Machado, Daniel
; Costa, Rafael S.
; Rocha, I.
; Tidor, Bruce
; Ferreira, E. C.
Data: 2010
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/17014
Origem: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Descrição
Integration of different kinds of biological networks, is within the holistic approach of Systems
Biology. However, looking at metabolic networks only, one already finds a separation between
dynamic [2] and steady-state [3] models of metabolism. This work reviews the differences between
both modeling approaches and explores the gap between them. Common properties of both kind of
models are studied in detail, using as case study the central carbon metabolism of E. coli. Steadystate
models are underdetermined and define a space of possible solutions, the so-called flux cone
[4]. On the other hand, the kinetic properties of dynamic models define a specific flux distribution
inside this space of solutions. We explore how this particular solution changes in function of initial
conditions and the different kinetic parameters. Due to changes in experimental conditions and
experimental measurement error, these parameters can vary in a wide range, changing the flux
distribution around its original value within a kinetically feasible solution space. We perform Monte
Carlo sampling [5] to analyze the solution space of both the dynamic and steady-state models. We
estimate the volume of the kinetically feasible solution space under different restrictions and find it
to be considerably smaller than the volume of the steady-state flux cone. -rherefore, it is possible to
cope with the lack and uncertainty in experimental data by defining refined solution spaces that can
be used in constraint-based methods [1] such as Flux Balance Analysis.