Advances in Metabolic Control Analysis

A methodology for characterizing metabolic systems using the response, control, and elasticity coefficients has emerged since the early 1970s. This methodology, termed metabolic control analysis, aims to characterize the sensitivity of metabolic responses with respect to changes in enzyme activities or parameters without the use of full mathematical models. It takes advantage of several relationships among the coefficients at the steady state. These relationships facilitate the experimental determination of the coefficients and serve as a consistency test when the coefficients are determined independently. Both the theoretical and experimental aspects of this analysis are reviewed, with an emphasis on recent developments and issues commonly discussed in the literature.