Lessons from a Genetic Network about the Causes of Dominance

I review recent findings from the stoichiometric analysis o f metabolic networks. These find ings show that the physiological theory o f dominance, which explains dominance in metabolic genes from kinetic properties o f biochemical pathways and redundant allelic functions is incomplete. Stoichiometric analysis o f metabolic networks indicates that a mix o f causes-local allele redundancy and global network properties-is responsible for dominance in metabolic genes.