What is it about?
A new study allows for the prediction of the most fit metabolisms in their environments by linking the chemical master equation with chemical kinetics, enhancing physics-based biological predictions. This advancement demonstrates how thermodynamic optimality leads to organized, highly likely states that confer growth advantages during natural selection.
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Why is it important?
Researchers derived and linked the chemical master equation with mass action kinetics of metabolism. The study revealed that thermodynamically optimal metabolisms are characterized by having high steady state rates and rates of free energy dissipation when compared to similar metabolisms. It is now possible to easily identify the most likely parameters for metabolic models, enhancing the predictive power for processes that cannot be directly measured. This allows for robust predictions about molecular processes.
Perspectives
We are grateful for the peer reviewers' enthusiasm regarding the study, and we hope that researchers find the study and methods useful such that it will advance their work.
William Cannon
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Probabilistic and maximum entropy modeling of chemical reaction systems: Characteristics and comparisons to mass action kinetic models, The Journal of Chemical Physics, June 2024, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0180417.
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