Figure 1

Species vs. label half-life. Panel A: The species half-life of a substrate S in the reaction S → P is plotted for different reaction types (solid lines). Except for processes of order 1, the half-life is time-dependent. Since the substrate is not produced in further reactions, the label half-life (dashes) equals the species half-life. Panel B: The substrate S participates in a production (A → S) and a processing (S → P ) reaction. Now, the species half-life differs except for a linear processing from the label half-life, because the label flux is proportional to the total flux of each reaction and is therefore affected by concentration changes through influx of S. Both panels: The species half-life has been determined analytically and numerically according to the methods section. Matlab scripts to reproduce the plots are available in the additional file 1.