English

Dynamic control of catalysis within biological cells

Statistical Mechanics 2011-05-27 v1 Biological Physics Subcellular Processes

Abstract

We develop a theory of enzyme catalysis within biological cells where the substrate concentration [S](t) is time dependent, in contrast to the Michaelis-Menten theory that assumes a steady state. We find that the time varying concentration can combine, in a non-linear way, with the ruggedness of the free energy landscape of enzymes (discovered both in single molecule studies and in simulations) to provide a highly efficient switch (or, bifurcation) between two catalytically active states, at a critical substrate concentration. This allows a dynamic control of product synthesis in cell.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1105.5192,
  title  = {Dynamic control of catalysis within biological cells},
  author = {Biman Jana and Biman Bagchi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1105.5192},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

13 pages, 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T18:12:51.667Z