biostudies-literatureFaraji MNIAID NIH HHSNIEHS NIH HHSNational Institutes of HealthNIH HHSNational Science Foundation2165-2172https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC5860468biostudies-literatureUnknown33(14)<h4>Motivation</h4>Most metabolic pathways contain more reactions than metabolites and therefore have a wide stoichiometric matrix that corresponds to infinitely many possible flux distributions that are perfectly compatible with the dynamics of the metabolites in a given dataset. This under-determinedness poses a challenge for the quantitative characterization of flux distributions from time series data and thus for the design of adequate, predictive models. Here we propose a method that reduces the degrees of freedom in a stepwise manner and leads to a dynamic flux distribution that is, in a statistical sense, likely to be close to the true distribution.<h4>Results</h4>We applied the proposed method to the lignin biosynthesis pathway in switchgrass. The system consists of 16 metabolites Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)Stepwise inference of likely dynamic flux distributions from metabolic time series data.PMC5860468MCB-0958172, MCB-0946595 and MCB-1517588DEB-1241046HHSN272201200031CP51 OD011132MCB 1411672P30 ES019776Voit EOFaraji MfalseStepwise inference of likely dynamic flux distributions from metabolic time series data.<h4>Motivation</h4>Most metabolic pathways contain more reactions than metabolites and therefore have a wide stoichiometric matrix that corresponds to infinitely many possible flux distributions that are perfectly compatible with the dynamics of the metabolites in a given dataset. This under-determinedness poses a challenge for the quantitative characterization of flux distributions from time series data and thus for the design of adequate, predictive models. Here we propose a method that reduces the degrees of freedom in a stepwise manner and leads to a dynamic flux distribution that is, in a statistical sense, likely to be close to the true distribution.<h4>Results</h4>We applied the proposed method to the lignin biosynthesis pathway in switchgrass. The system consists of 16 metabolites 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z2017 Jul2025-04-05T15:11:20.619Z2019-03-26T23:46:22ZS-EPMC58604682833419910.1093/bioinformatics/btx126