Plant Metabolic Networks

About this book

Plants are the basis for human nutrition and of increasing interest for the chemical industry as a source of chemical feed stocks. Fuels derived from plant biomass will increasingly replace fossil fuels in the future. In order to increase crop productivity, design new plant products and create new energy crops, there is need for methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis of metabolism which are able to guide the rational re-design of metabolic networks.

In this book, recent advances in qualitative and quantitative analysis of metabolism are summarized to give an overview of the current state of knowledge. Principles of the analysis of network structure, flux analysis and kinetic modeling are described, along with the analytical methods necessary to produce the data needed for metabolic flux analysis and for kinetic modeling. The analysis of larger metabolic networks is only possible by using computer assistance and therefore each chapter of the book also describes software available for this purpose.

Contents

Introduction.- Network definition.- Metabolite measurements.- Enzyme kinetics: theory and practice.- Quantification of Isotope label.- Data integration.- Topology of plant metabolic networks.- Network stoichiometry.- Steady state fluxes.- Dynamic flux analysis.- Kinetic modeling.- Subject Index.

Customer Reviews

Biography

Jorg Schwender received his Ph.D. in Biology in 1999 from the University of Karlsruhe / Germany. He is currently associate scientist in the biology department of Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York, USA. His main research interests are metabolic flux analysis and related approaches of modeling and analysis of metabolic networks in plants.