Stoichiometric network analysis limits

Despite its predictive power and successful application on a variety of large-scale metabolic networks, stoichiometric analysis also encompasses a few inadequacies. In particular, stoichiometric analysis largely relies on the steady-state assumption and is not straightforwardly applicable to analyze complex time-dependent dynamics in metabolic systems. Similarly, stoichiometric analysis does not allow us to account for allosteric regulation, considerably delimiting its capabilities to predict dynamic properties. See also Section V.C for a discussion of the limits of stoichiometric analysis. 

Despite its widely recognized limitations, flux balance analysis has resulted in a large number of successful applications [35, 67, 72 74], including several extensions and refinements. See Ref. [247] for a recent review. Of particular interest are recent efforts to augment the stoichiometric balance equations with thermodynamic constraints providing a link between concentration and flux in the constraint-based analysis of metabolic networks [74, 149, 150]. For a more comprehensive review, we refer to the very readable monograph of Palsson [50]. 

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