Robustness of metabolic networks: A review of existing definitions

Describing the determinants of robustness of biological systems has become one of the central questions in systems biology. Despite the increasing research efforts, it has proven difficult to arrive at a unifying definition for this important concept. We argue that this is due to the multifaceted na...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BioSystems 2011-10, Vol.106 (1), p.1-8
Main Authors: Larhlimi, Abdelhalim, Blachon, Sylvain, Selbig, Joachim, Nikoloski, Zoran
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Constraint-based approaches
Graph theory
Kinetics
Metabolic networks
Metabolic Networks and Pathways
Robustness
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Summary:Describing the determinants of robustness of biological systems has become one of the central questions in systems biology. Despite the increasing research efforts, it has proven difficult to arrive at a unifying definition for this important concept. We argue that this is due to the multifaceted nature of the concept of robustness and the possibility to formally capture it at different levels of systemic formalisms ( e.g., topology and dynamic behavior). Here we provide a comprehensive review of the existing definitions of robustness pertaining to metabolic networks. As kinetic approaches have been excellently reviewed elsewhere, we focus on definitions of robustness proposed within graph-theoretic and constraint-based formalisms.
ISSN:0303-2647
1872-8324
DOI:10.1016/j.biosystems.2011.06.002