title: Elementary flux modes in a nutshell: properties, calculation and applications.
abstract: Elementary flux mode (EFM) analysis allows the unbiased decomposition of a metabolic network into minimal functional units, making it a powerful tool for metabolic engineering. While the use of EFM analysis (EFMA) is still limited by the size of the models it can handle, EFMA has been successfully applied to solve real-world metabolic engineering problems. Here we provide a user-oriented introduction to EFMA, provide examples of recent applications, analyze current research strategies to overcome the computational restrictions and give an overview over current approaches, which aim to identify and calculate only biologically relevant EFMs.
authors.affiliation: Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Vienna, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria. juergen.zanghellini@acib.at.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zanghellini
authors.forename: David E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Ruckerbauer
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hanscho
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jungreuthmayer
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D060847:Metabolic Engineering; D064688:Metabolic Flux Analysis; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D008954:Models, Biological; D049490:Systems Biology
keywords: Computational methods; Metabolic engineering; Metabolic pathway analysis; Minimal cut set; Strain optimization