Thermodynamic constraints on the regulation of metabolic fluxes.

ABSTRACT: Nutrition and metabolism are fundamental to cellular function. Metabolic activity (i.e. rates of flow, most commonly referred to as flux) is constrained by thermodynamics and regulated by the activity of enzymes. The general principles that relate biological and physical variables to metabolic control are incompletely understood. Using metabolic control analysis and computer simulations in several models of simplified metabolic pathways, we derive analytical expressions that define relationships between thermodynamics, enzyme activity, and flux control. The relationships are further analyzed in a mathematical model of glycolysis as an example of a complex biochemical pathway. We show that metabolic pathways that are very far from equilibrium are controlled by the activity of upstrea

SUBMITTER: Dai Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6314121 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature