Compartment and hub definitions tune metabolic networks for metabolomic interpretations

Abstract

Background: Metabolic networks represent all chemical reactions that occur between molecular metabolites in an organism's cells. They offer biological context in which to integrate, analyze, and interpret omic measurements, but their large scale and extensive connectivity present unique challenges. While it is practical to simplify these networks by placing constraints on compartments and hubs, it is unclear how these simplifications alter the structure of metabolic networks and the interpretation of metabolomic experiments. Results: We curated and adapted the latest systemic model of human metabolism and developed customizable tools to define metabolic networks with and without compartmenta..