Viable flux distribution in metabolic networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a solvable statistical mechanics model for flux distribution in metabolic networks, highlighting how network topology influences flux variability and system robustness.

Contribution

The paper presents a new analytically tractable model for flux distribution in metabolic networks, emphasizing the role of topology in flux fluctuations.

Findings

Topology enables large flux fluctuations.

Flux variability impacts system robustness.

Model provides analytical insights into metabolic fluxes.

Abstract

The metabolic networks are very well characterized for a large set of organisms, a unique case in within the large-scale biological networks. For this reason they provide a a very interesting framework for the construction of analytically tractable statistical mechanics models. In this paper we introduce a solvable model for the distribution of fluxes in the metabolic network. We show that the effect of the topology on the distribution of fluxes is to allow for large fluctuations of their values, a fact that should have implications on the robustness of the system.