Fig. 4

Reaction network of the formose reaction describing pre-biotic carbohydrate formation [79]. The RN is drawn here in a simplified form showing aldol and retro-aldol reactions (those with 1 educt and 2 products, and vice versa) without their reverse reactions. The stoichiometric matrix of the full network comprising all 38 reaction connecting the 29 compounds is provided as Addition file 1. Compounds are labeled by the number of carbon atoms. C1a (in the center) designates formaldehyd, C3c is dihydroxy acetone. The network was drawn an analyzed with MØD [21]. All compounds with the same number of carbons are obligatory isomers. Moreover, all sum formula representations are of the from \(A_n\), with A denoting the moiety corresponding to the formaldehyd unit