New method is developed for selection of optimal tracers for 13C metabolic flux analysis.
Doubly 13C-labeled glucose tracers are optimal, and the best tracer is [1,6-13C]glucose.
Selection of optimal tracers is not strongly influenced by assumed metabolic fluxes.
[1,6-13C]glucose and [1,2-13C]glucose are optimal tracers for parallel labeling experiments.
[2,5-13C]glucose and [3,4-13C]glucose are a good tracer to complement other tracers.