<p>This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> <p>Can qualitative metabolite time course predictions be inferred from measured mRNA
expression patterns? Speaking against this possibility is the large number of ‘decoupling’
control points that lie between these variables, i.e. translation, protein degradation, enzyme
inhibition and enzyme activation. Speaking for it is the notion that these control points
might be coordinately regulated such that action exerted on the mRNA level is informative
of action exerted on the protein and metabolite levels. A simple kinetic model of sphingoid
base metabolism in yeast is postulated. When the enzyme activities in this model are
modulated proportional to mRNA expression levels measured in heat shocked yeast, the
model yields a transient rise and fall in sphingoid bases followed by a permanent rise in
ceramide. This finding is in qualitative agreement with experiments and is thus consistent
with the aforementioned coordinated control system hypothesis.</p>
[]
Comp Funct Genomics. 2001 Oct; 2(5):289-294