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Metabolic flux analysis
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<p>Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) is an experimental <a href="/facts/Fluxomics/w9clpxAE">fluxomics</a> technique used to examine production and consumption rates of <a href="/facts/Metabolite/nAyywVtA">metabolites</a> in a biological system. At an intracellular level, it allows for the quantification of metabolic <a href="/facts/Flux_(metabolism)/xABkvHfh">fluxes</a>, thereby elucidating the central <a href="/facts/Metabolism/WxDrm8k5">metabolism</a> of the cell. Various methods of MFA, including isotopically stationary metabolic flux analysis, isotopically non-stationary metabolic flux analysis, and thermodynamics-based metabolic flux analysis, can be coupled with <a href="/facts/Metabolic_network_modelling/tK3hFCXm">stoichiometric models</a> of metabolism and <a href="/facts/Mass_spectrometry/RH5WBHJ2">mass spectrometry</a> methods with isotopic mass resolution to elucidate the transfer of <a href="/facts/Moiety_(chemistry)/WxKqcJe1">moieties</a> containing isotopic tracers from one <a href="/facts/Metabolite/nAyywVtA">metabolite</a> into another and derive information about the metabolic network. Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) has many applications such as determining the limits on the ability of a biological system to produce a biochemical such as <a href="/facts/Ethanol/3lCLfBSP">ethanol</a>, predicting the response to <a href="/facts/Gene_knockout/RJTMDbUR">gene knockout</a>, and guiding the identification of bottleneck enzymes in metabolic networks for <a href="/facts/Metabolic_engineering/quTXJR6r">metabolic engineering</a> efforts. </p> <p>Metabolic flux analysis may use <a href="/facts/Carbon-13/Iho4LUtW">13C</a>-labeled isotope tracers for <a href="/facts/Isotopic_labeling/Sqtr7c0G">isotopic labeling</a> experiments. Nuclear magnetic resonance (<a href="/facts/Nuclear_magnetic_resonance/pGYAn9Bz">NMR</a>) techniques and <a href="/facts/Mass_spectrometry/RH5WBHJ2">mass spectrometry</a> may then be used to measure metabolite labeling patterns to provide information for determination of pathway fluxes. Because MFA typically requires rigorous flux calculation of complex metabolic networks, publicly available software tools have been developed to automate MFA and reduce its computational burden. </p>