Stoicheiometric analysis in studies of metabolism. (April 2002)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cornish-Bowden, Athel; Hofmeyr, Jan-Hendrik S.; Cárdenas, María Luz
• Is Part Of: Biochemical Society transactions. Volume 30:Number 2(2002)
• Page Start: 43
• Page End: 46
• Publication Date: 2002-04
• Subjects: computer analysis of metabolism -- metabolic modelling -- pathway analysis -- Trypanosoma brucei; Biochemistry -- Congresses; 572
• DOI: 10.1042/bst0300043
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0300-5127

Abstract

Abstract : Stoicheiometric analysis of metabolic pathways provides a systematic way of determining which metabolite concentrations are subject to constraints, information that may otherwise be very difficult to recognize in a large branched pathway. The procedure involves representing the pathway structure in the form of a matrix and then carrying out row operations to convert the matrix into 'row echelon form': this is a form in which as many as possible of the elements on the main diagonal are non-zero, and all of the elements below the main diagonal are zero. If exactly the same operations are carried out on a unit matrix of order equal to the number of intermediate metabolites in the pathway, the resulting matrix allows the stoicheiometric constraints to be read off directly.