Metabolic modeling pathway stability

The basic idea is very simple In many scenarios the construction of an explicit kinetic model of a metabolic pathway is not necessary. For example, as detailed in Section IX, to determine under which conditions a steady state loses its stability, only a local linear approximation of the system at this respective state is needed, that is, we only need to know the eigenvalues of the associated Jacobian matrix. Similar, a large number of other dynamic properties, including control coefficients or time-scale analysis, are accessible solely based on a local linear description of the system. 

Figure 41. Evaluating the stability of the simple example pathway shown in Fig. 40 Metabolic states and the corresponding saturation parameters are sampled randomly and their stability is evaluated. For each sampled model, the largest positive part within the spectrum of eigenvalues is recorded. Shown is the probability of unstable models, as a function of (A) The size of the system. Here the number of regulatory interactions increases proportional to the length of pathway (number of metabolites). Other parameters are maximal reversibility ymax 1 and p 0.5. (B) An increasing number of regulatory interactions. The number of metabolites m 100 is constant. Maximal reversibility ymax 1 and p 0.5. (C) Maximal reversibility v /v . and p 0.5. Other...

Advantages High growth rate Efficient expression of root-specific metabolic pathway Genetic and biochemical stability Large-scale culture Excellent model for studying the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites... 

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