title: Systems-integration of plant metabolism: means, motive and opportunity.
abstract: System integration of metabolism is considered in analogy to the investigation of corporate misdemeanour. Motive, or goal-oriented explanation, provides hypotheses that can guide the investigation of network structure. Opportunity can be established by correlative analysis using large-scale omics resources. However, correlative approaches on their own remain inconclusive and seldom identify all the links in a network. Establishment of means, or the ability to act on other network components and contribute to a phenotype, is therefore crucial. This requires functional information. Integration of quantitative data in the context of pathway models provides a powerful approach to establish 'means'. This is illustrated by discussing: first, how protein abundance is regulated by a network including transcript abundance, translation and protein degradation and second, how a combination of experimentation and modelling provides information about pathway flux, an emergent network property that integrates changes in proteins and metabolites and determines composition and biomass.
authors: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany. mstitt@mpimp-golm.mpg.de
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Stitt
mesh_terms: D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins