Metabolic control theory and biochemical systems theory: Different objectives, different assumptions, different results

Abstract

The claim by Savageau et al. (1987 a, b, Math. Biosci. 86, 127-145, 147-167) that the theory of metabolic control associated with Kacser & Burns (1973, Symp. Soc. Exp. Biol. 27, 65-104) and with Heinrich & Rapoport (1974, Eur. J. Biochem. 42, 89-102) is no more than a special case of the biochemical systems theory of Savageau and colleagues is examined. It is shown to be based on a misconception of the objectives and assumptions of metabolic control theory. In particular, the control and elasticity coefficients that play a central role in metabolic control theory are not constants and cannot be treated as constants. Consequently they cannot in general be equated with the kinetic orders that appear in biochemical systems theory, though they do correspond at the point where the two theories are tangential to one another.