>> <athel...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>>> The other day I wrote the following sentence, and each time I re-read
>>> it I have a doubt about the last word but three:

>>> "In consequence, if a reaction in a biosynthetic pathway displays
>>> negative cooperativity with respect to the concentration of its
>>> substrate, and if the same metabolite acts as an effector of a reaction
>>> in another pathway, then the flux through the second pathway will be
>>> more sensitive to the flux through the first than it would be if there
>>> was no negative cooperativity."

>>> Don't worry about whether you find this an elegantly written sentence
>>> or not, I'm just thinking about the final if clause. It seems to me to
>>> be clearly counterfactual, and yet I can't persuade myself that the
>>> "was" should be "were": it just seems wrong to me with "were".

>>> Would "were" be better?

>> Grudgingly, I think the textbook "were" has it. (Nevertheless, the
>> English subjunctive is a feeble thing, which I'm generally inclined to
>> avoid if I can.)

> Athel could always say "if the reaction displayed no negative
> cooperativity."