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Ametabolic network is the complete set of metabolic and physical processes that determine thephysiological andbiochemical properties of acell. As such, these networks comprise the chemical reactions ofmetabolism, themetabolic pathways, as well as the regulatory interactions that guide these reactions.
With the sequencing of completegenomes, it is now possible to reconstruct the network of biochemical reactions in many organisms, from bacteria to human. Several of these networks are available online:Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG),[1]EcoCyc,[2]BioCyc[3] and metaTIGER.[4]Metabolic networks are powerful tools for studying and modelling metabolism.
  Majormetabolic pathways inmetro-style map. Click any text (name of pathway or metabolites) to link to the corresponding article. Single lines: pathways common to most lifeforms. Double lines: pathways not in humans (occurs in e.g. plants, fungi, prokaryotes).  Orange nodes:carbohydrate metabolism. Violet nodes:photosynthesis. Red nodes:cellular respiration. Pink nodes:cell signaling. Blue nodes:amino acid metabolism. Grey nodes:vitamin andcofactor metabolism. Brown nodes:nucleotide andprotein metabolism. Green nodes:lipid metabolism. |
Metabolic networks can be used to detectcomorbidity patterns in diseased patients.[5] Certain diseases, such asobesity anddiabetes, can be present in the same individual concurrently, sometimes one disease being a significant risk factor for the other disease.[6] The disease phenotypes themselves are normally the consequence of the cell's inability to breakdown or produce an essential substrate. However, an enzyme defect at one reaction may affect the fluxes of other subsequent reactions. These cascading effects couple the metabolic diseases associated with subsequent reactions resulting in comorbidity effects. Thus, metabolic disease networks can be used to determine if two disorders are connected due to their correlated reactions.[5]
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