title: Robustness of metabolic networks: a review of existing definitions.
abstract: Describing the determinants of robustness of biological systems has become one of the central questions in systems biology. Despite the increasing research efforts, it has proven difficult to arrive at a unifying definition for this important concept. We argue that this is due to the multifaceted nature of the concept of robustness and the possibility to formally capture it at different levels of systemic formalisms (e.g., topology and dynamic behavior). Here we provide a comprehensive review of the existing definitions of robustness pertaining to metabolic networks. As kinetic approaches have been excellently reviewed elsewhere, we focus on definitions of robustness proposed within graph-theoretic and constraint-based formalisms.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Germany. larhlimi@mpimp-golm.mpg.de
authors.forename: Abdelhalim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Larhlimi
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Blachon
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Selbig
authors.forename: Zoran
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Nikoloski
mesh_terms: D007700:Kinetics; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways