The non-linear analysis of cybernetic models. Guidelines for model formulation

A set of guidelines are formulated, using tools from bifurcation theory, that describe the qualitative characteristics of the different forms of competition for key cellular resources present within the cybernetic framework. These guidelines establish the basis of a modular approach for the construction of abstracted cybernetic models of microbial processes. This methodology, employed in the subsequent papers of this series, affords the construction of entire classes of cybernetic models that are guaranteed to possess desired dynamic features, thus reducing the model formulation burden and yielding insight into the necessary level of metabolic pathway abstraction. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.