ArticleHFSP journal2009
A critical view of metabolic network adaptations.
Article in HFSP journal, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed.
- Metabolic robustness is an emergent property of hierarchical network organization in yeast.mSystems · 2026Article
- Metabolite biomarkers present in urine predict alterations in skeletal muscle associated with sarcopenia.Frontiers in aging · 2026Article
- Evolutionary design principles in metabolism.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Review
- Interrogating metabolism as an electron flow system.Current opinion in systems biology · 2019Review
- Network Architecture and Mutational Sensitivity of theFrontiers in molecular biosciences · 2018Article
- Limitations of a metabolic network-based reverse ecology method for inferring host-pathogen interactions.BMC bioinformatics · 2017Article
- Expression of extra-cellular levansucrase in Pseudomonas syringae is controlled by the in planta fitness-promoting metabolic repressor HexR.BMC microbiology · 2015Article
- Limited influence of oxygen on the evolution of chemical diversity in metabolic networks.Metabolites · 2013Article
- Artefacts in statistical analyses of network motifs: general framework and application to metabolic networks.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2012Article
- MIRAGE: a functional genomics-based approach for metabolic network model reconstruction and its application to cyanobacteria networks.Genome biology · 2012Article
- Optimality principles in the regulation of metabolic networks.Metabolites · 2012Article
- Current understanding of the formation and adaptation of metabolic systems based on network theory.Metabolites · 2012Article
- Article
- Systems biology of lactic acid bacteria: a critical review.Microbial cell factories · 2011Review
- Difference in the distribution pattern of substrate enzymes in the metabolic network of Escherichia coli, according to chaperonin requirement.BMC systems biology · 2011Article
- Randomizing genome-scale metabolic networks.PloS one · 2011Article
- Article
- Molecular-level tradeoffs and metabolic adaptation to simultaneous stressors.Current opinion in biotechnology · 2010Review
- Evolution under fluctuating environments explains observed robustness in metabolic networks.PLoS computational biology · 2010Article
- Signatures of arithmetic simplicity in metabolic network architecture.PLoS computational biology · 2010Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There has been considerable recent interest in deciphering the adaptive properties underlying the structure and function of metabolic networks. Various features of metabolic networks such as the global topology, distribution of fluxes, and mutational robustness, have been proposed to have adaptive significance and hence reflect design principles. However, whether evolutionary processes alternative to direct selection on the trait under investigation also play a role is often ignored and the selection pressures maintaining a given metabolic trait often remain speculative. Some systems-level traits might simply arise as by-products of selection on other traits or even through random genetic drift. Here, we ask which systems-level aspects of metabolism are likely to have adaptive utility and which could be better explained as by-products of other evolutionary forces. We conclude that the global topological characteristics of metabolic networks and their mutational robustness are unlikely to be directly shaped by natural selection. Conversely, models of optimal design revealed that various aspects of individual pathways and the behavior of the whole network show signs of adaptations, even though the exact selective forces often remain elusive. Comparative and experimental approaches, which so far have been relatively rarely employed, could help to distinguish between alternative adaptive scenarios.
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Registered trials
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