title: [Progress in genome-scale metabolic network: a review].
abstract: Dozens of genome-scale metabolic networks have been reconstructed by integrating information from various databases on genes, proteins, metabolites and validated by experiment data from the literature. The reconstructed networks can be used to quantitatively investigate the interactions between components of a biological system at a system level. Such theoretical study could help us understand the organization principle of the large scale network and thus provide guidance to strain optimization through metabolic engineering technology. In this review, we evaluate the methods for the reconstruction, analysis and application of genome-scale metabolic networks. The difficulties and perspectives on this emerging research field are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hongwu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Xueming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D007218:Industrial Microbiology; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways / Q000502:physiology*