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Abstract
This paper is concerned with the application of Metabolic Control Analysis to chemostat experiments. It deals with the peculiar problems which are presented when using a chemostat for such purposes. The paper shows how to apply a top-down approach to quantifying control in the chemostat exerted by both the ‘physical’ components (e.g. dilution rate) and the biological components. The analysis is considered at a number of levels, depending on the amount of information on the components of metabolism either known or accessible experimentally. A method is also presented for using the information obtained by this analysis to obtain a ‘virtual’ control coefficient, which is defined as a control coefficient which would be obtained if it were possible to clamp all metabolites ‘external’ to the micro-organism, including biomass, at their steady-state levels. This allows, amongst other things, control coefficients with respect to growth rate to be determined under chemostat conditions.
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