1932

Abstract

Abstract

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.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.physchem.58.032806.104550
2007-05-05
2024-12-06
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.physchem.58.032806.104550
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.physchem.58.032806.104550
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error