ABSTRACT

In reality, for metabolic control and signal transduction in networks it is not enough to gaze at a few or a single step, ‘the rate-limiting step’. As advocated by Fell (1997, Chapter 5), in regulation and control of metabolism, the whole network of involved elements and events must be taken into consideration (Cornish-Bowden et al. 2007; Henry et al. 2007); even though many triggered responses including steps in the bio-synthetic process (Cornish-Bowden 2004a,b) may still be viewed through a looking-glass, narrowing in at a rate-limiting process with a the ‘committed step’ (Straub & Sharp 2004; Johnson et al. 2005; Levin 2006; Harris 2006a, p. 404).