Systems containing many reactions among a small set of unique components are often redundant in terms of the dimension of the stoichiometric subspace, and hence they can be represented by a subset of the reactions.
For example, the system
[1] A -> B
[2] B -> C
[3] A -> C
contains three reactions, but only two of them are independent. (Computing the rank of the stoichiometric matrix will give an answer of two.) Hence, the stoichiometric subspace is a two-dimensional plane in cA-cB-cC space, which could be represented by a system of only two reactions instead ([1] and [2], [1] and [3], or [2] and [3]).
artools needs this functionality to handle more realistic and generalised reaction systems.
Systems containing many reactions among a small set of unique components are often redundant in terms of the dimension of the stoichiometric subspace, and hence they can be represented by a subset of the reactions.
For example, the system [1] A -> B [2] B -> C [3] A -> C contains three reactions, but only two of them are independent. (Computing the rank of the stoichiometric matrix will give an answer of two.) Hence, the stoichiometric subspace is a two-dimensional plane in cA-cB-cC space, which could be represented by a system of only two reactions instead ([1] and [2], [1] and [3], or [2] and [3]).
artoolsneeds this functionality to handle more realistic and generalised reaction systems.