Chemical Reaction Network Theory: a tool for systems biology

Feinberg's Chemical Reaction Network Theory (CRNT) connects the structure of a biochemical reaction network to qualitative properties of the corresponding system of ordinary differential equations. In particular, no information about parameter values is needed. As such, it seems to be well suited for application in systems biology, where parameter uncertainty is predominant. To demonstrate potential benefits from the application, different reaction networks representing a single layer of the well-studied Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade are analyzed. Recent theoretical results show that multilayered protein kinase cascades can exhibit multistationarity even on a single cascade level. Using CRNT, we examine the influence of conserved moieties on the existence of multiple steady states