Structural Analysis of Metabolic Networks: Elementary Flux Modes, Analogy to Petri Nets, and Application to Mycoplasma Pneumoniae

Pathway analysis is a helpful tool in fucntional genomics and drug target indentification. Several concepts of pathway analysis, such as that of 'elementary flux modes' are dicussed. Some interrelations between this analysis and the P-invariants and T-invariants introduced in Petri net theory are outlined. The metabolism of Mycoplasma pneumoniae is analysed. This metabolism is decomposed into smaller, tractable subsystems such as nucletide metabolism, arginine degradation and the tetrahydrofolate system. For these subsystems, the elementary fluy modes are interpreted.