A cybernetic modeling framework for analysis of metabolic systems

We present a cybernetic perspective of metabolic systems, designed to take full account of regulatory processes, which profoundly influence the course of metabolism through dependence not only on the organism’s genomic constitution, but also on abiotic environmental influences. The cybernetic perspective relies on proposing “mechanisms” of choice behavior by which biological systems drive enzyme syntheses and allosteric processes for chemical reactions that promote perceived local or global cellular objectives. This article is an exposition of the framework, attempting to show how experimental data can be used to facilitate model identification. Such an approach is proposed with the view to exploit detailed cellular measurements such as metabolite and mRNA or enzyme levels. We present a modular approach that o u o S o c i ©