“…Unlike data-driven modeling, optimization- and enumeration-based strategies can be used to investigate and characterize a biochemical network from first principles and at the near-steady state ( Segre et al, 2002 ; Shlomi et al, 2005 ; Wagner and Urbanczik, 2005 ; Urbanczik, 2007 ; Orth et al, 2010 ; Muller and Regensburger, 2016 ; Klamt et al, 2017 ; Klamt et al, 2018 ; Lee et al, 2020 ). Algorithms which assess the flux of a reactant (flux balance analysis, flux variability analysis, regulatory on–off minimization, and minimization of metabolic adjustment) will maximize or minimize the biomass of a metabolite of interest and can be used to investigate the effects of deletions and other perturbations on the flux of metabolites through a large network ( Segre et al, 2002 ; Shlomi et al, 2005 ; Orth et al, 2010 ; Klamt et al, 2018 ; Lee et al, 2020 ). The numerical enumeration of elementary flux modes and vectors, along with extreme pathway analysis, can be used to derive meaningful information about “metabolic” hubs and smaller subsets of cooperating reactions from biochemical networks ( Wagner and Urbanczik, 2005 ; Urbanczik, 2007 ; Muller and Regensburger, 2016 ; Klamt et al, 2017 ).…”