Comparison of Accuracy of Alternative Models for Biochemical Pathways

Abstract

During the past two decades, three new theories have been developed for the representation and analysis of biochemical phenomena: Biochemical Systems Theory, originated by Savageau (1969ab, 1970, 1971, 1972), Metabolic Control Theory, originated by Kacser & Bums (1973) and Heinrich and Rapoport (1974, 1975), and the theory originated by Crabtree & Newsholme (1978, 1985, 1987), which I shall call Flux-Oriented Theory (cf. Sorribas & Savageau, 1989b). All three theories have the ultimate goal to yield insight into the function and regulation of biochemical systems. In particular, they all intend to answer the question of how component and global properties are related to each other or, in other words, how the function of an integrated biochemical system can be deduced from kinetic observations of the component parts. Comparisons on the basis of the underlying theory (Savageau, Voit & Irvine, 1987ab), of results from application to the same systems (Sorribas & Savageau, 1989abc), and of the specific operations involved in the execution of an analysis (as described by Savageau in Chapter 4 of this book) all have shown that these three theories are related variants based on the Power-Law Formalism, even though some of the specific aims and applications of each approach may appear to be different.