TY - JOUR AU - Pusa, Taneli AU - Wannagat, Martin AU - Sagot, Marie-France PY - 2019 M3 - Review TI - Metabolic Games JO - Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fams.2019.00018 VL - 5 SN - 2297-4687 N2 - Metabolic networks have been used to successfully predict phenotypes based on optimization principles. However, a general framework that would extend to situations not governed by simple optimization, such as multispecies communities, is still lacking. Concepts from evolutionary game theory have been proposed to amend the situation. Alternative metabolic states can be seen as strategies in a “metabolic game,” and phenotypes can be predicted based on the equilibria of this game. In this survey, we review the literature on applying game theory to the study of metabolism, present the general idea of a metabolic game, and discuss open questions and future challenges. ER -