Optimal concentrations of enzymes and their substrates

Date:
October 27, 2021
Source:
Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf
Summary:
Biological cells invest much of their resources into the
production of enzymes, which catalyze the conversion of substrates
into products. An international team of bioinformaticians and
biophysicists discovered that these processes are most efficient
at a certain relationship between the intracellular enzyme and
substrate concentrations.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Biological cells invest much of their resources into the production of
enzymes, which catalyze the conversion of substrates into products. An international team of bioinformaticians and biophysicists, led by
Prof. Martin Lercher from Heinrich Heine University Du"sseldorf
(HHU), discovered that these processes are most efficient at a
certain relationship between the intracellular enzyme and substrate concentrations. They describe this discovery in the current issue of
the journal PLOS Biology.


========================================================================== Without enzymes, biological cells cannot function. Enzymes catalyze
countless chemical reactions that would otherwise run too slowly or not
at all. Thus, enzymes are essential molecular tools of cells to produce
their building blocks, but also to regulate their processes.

Biological cells contain hundreds of different enzyme and substrate
types. For molecular biology and for many areas of medicine, it is
important to understand how their concentrations affect cellular
functions. Such knowledge also helps biotechnologists to develop more
efficient biological factories based on enzymes.

Until now, scientists assumed that no general relationship exists
between the individual concentrations. A team of researchers of the HHU Institute for Computational Cell Biology and the Department of Physics
of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), has now derived such
a relationship, based on the consideration of processes with optimal
cellular efficiency.

The researchers conclude that the intracellular mass of a substrate should
be equal to the mass of the free enzymes that are waiting to convert it
into products. This relationship was confirmed with experimental data
for the bacterium E. coli.

Prof. Lercher said about their results: "It is amazing that such
a simple relationship seems to govern the concentrations in living
cells. I wouldn't be surprised if this important result will eventually
find its way into textbooks for biochemistry and cellular physiology." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Heinrich-Heine_University_Duesseldorf. Original written by Arne
Claussen. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Hugo Dourado, Matteo Mori, Terence Hwa, Martin J. Lercher. On the
optimality of the enzyme-substrate relationship in bacteria. PLOS
Biology, 2021; 19 (10): e3001416 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001416 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211027121958.htm

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