Phosphorylation energy hypothesis: open chemical systems and their biological functions.


Author: Qian H.

Affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. qian@amath.washington.edu
Conference/Journal: Annu Rev Phys Chem.
Date published: 2007
Other:
 Volume ID: 58   ,  Pages: 113-42   ,  Word Count: 99  
    

Biochemical systems and processes in living cells generally operate far from equilibrium. This review presents an overview of a statistical thermodynamic treatment for such systems, with examples from several key components in cellular signal transduction. Open-system nonequilibrium steady-state (NESS) models are introduced. The models account quantitatively for the energetics and thermodynamics in phosphorylation-dephosphorylation switches, GTPase timers, and specificity amplification through kinetic proofreading. The chemical energy derived from ATP and GTP hydrolysis establishes the NESS of a cell and makes the cell--a mesoscopic-biochemical reaction system that consists of a collection of thermally driven fluctuating macromolecules--a genetically programmed chemical machine.

PMID: 17059360