Biochemical pathways networks

Biochemical pathways consist of networks of individual reactions that have many feedback mechanisms. This makes their study and the elucidation of kinetics of individual reaction steps and their regulation so difficult. Nevertheless, important inroads have already been achieved. Much of this has been done by studying the metabolism of microorganisms in fermentation reactors. 

This is not the place to expose in detail the problems and the solutions already obtained in studying biochemical reaction networks. However, because of the importance of this problem and the great recent interest in understanding metabolic networks, we hope to throw a little light on this area. Figure 10.3-23 shows a model for the metabolic pathways involved in the central carbon metabolism of Escherichia coli through glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway [22]. 

Biochemical pathways and metabolic reaction networks have recently attracted much interest and are an active and rich field for research,... 

S. L. Bell and B. 0. Palsson, Expa A program for calculating extreme pathways in biochemical reaction networks. Bioinformatics 21(8), 1739 1740 (2005). 

Any biochemical pathway intermediate that can proceed along more than one route in a network of metabolic reactions. 

Schilling CH, Palsson BO (1998) The underlying pathway structure of biochemical reaction networks. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 95 4193-4198... 

Another two key concepts in metabolic engineering are metabolic pathway analysis and metabolic pathway modeling. The former is used for assessing inherent network properties in the complete biochemical reaction networks. It involves identification of the metabolic network structure (or pathway topology), quantification of the fluxes through the branches of the metabolic network, and identification of the control structures within the metabolic network. 

Although a scientist may study a couple of isolated enzymes in the laboratory, inside the body enzymes are never lonely. They link up to form vibrant networks and pathways. The study of biochemical pathways and networks, and how they reverberate and influence each other, is the science... 

One way to think about the future of biology is to consider an analysis that takes in the global network of biochemical interactions in cells and then is able to zoom down to specific biochemical pathways in that global network and then down to the interfaces of... 

Figure 8.1 Biochemical pathways involved in glucose catabolism in Pseudomonas putida KT2440. The metabolic network depicted is sketched around four main metabolic blocks, identified with different colors (i) the peripheral oxidative pathways, that encompass the oxidative transformation of glucose into gluconate and 2-ketogluconate (and the corresponding phosphorylated derivatives of these metabolites) (ii) the Embden-Meyerhof-Pamas (EMP) pathway (nonfunctional, due to the absence of a 6-phosphofructokinase activity) (iii) the...

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