Abstract
One of the most important goals of the postgenomic era is understanding the metabolic dynamic processes and the functional structures generated by them. Extensive studies during the last three decades have shown that the dissipative self-organization of the functional enzymatic associations, the catalytic reactions produced during the metabolite channeling, the microcompartmentalization of these metabolic processes and the emergence of dissipative networks are the fundamental elements of the dynamical organization of cell metabolism. Here we present an overview of how mathematical models can be used to address the properties of dissipative metabolic structures at different organizational levels, both for individual enzymatic associations and for enzymatic networks. Recent analyses performed with dissipative metabolic networks have shown that unicellular organisms display a singular global enzymatic structure common to all living cellular organisms, which seems to be an intrinsic property of the functional metabolism as a whole. Mathematical models firmly based on experiments and their corresponding computational approaches are needed to fully grasp the molecular mechanisms of metabolic dynamical processes. They are necessary to enable the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the cellular catalytic reactions and also to help comprehend the conditions under which the structural dynamical phenomena and biological rhythms arise. Understanding the molecular mechanisms responsible for the metabolic dissipative structures is crucial for unraveling the dynamics of cellular life.
Highlights
Introduction to Molecular SelfOrganization in the Cellular MetabolismLiving cells are essentially dynamic metabolic systems, which are highly self-organized and formed by complex membranes surrounding a dense fluid mixture where millions of different biochemical elements interact to form self-assembled aggregates, a rich variety of supra-macromolecular functional structures and a great diversity of temporal metabolic behaviors.The enzymes are the most outstanding molecules of these surprisingly reactive systems
Extensive studies during the last three decades have shown that the dissipative self-organization of the functional enzymatic associations, the catalytic reactions produced during the metabolite channeling, the microcompartmentalization of these metabolic processes and the emergence of dissipative networks are the fundamental elements of the dynamical organization of cell metabolism
Systems biology is fundamental to study the functional structures of metabolism, to understand the molecular mechanisms responsible for the most basic dissipative metabolic processes and will be crucial to elucidate the functional architecture of the cell and the dynamics of cellular life
Summary
Living cells are essentially dynamic metabolic systems, which are highly self-organized and formed by complex membranes surrounding a dense fluid mixture where millions of different biochemical elements interact to form self-assembled aggregates, a rich variety of supra-macromolecular functional structures and a great diversity of temporal metabolic behaviors. A part of the energy inflow is used to produce a form of energy of higher thermodynamic value, i.e., lower entropy, which allows to diminish the number of chemical entities and to increase their dimension by means of biochemical interactions and molecular bonds, emerging highly ordered macro structures and complex functional dynamic behaviors [3]. These kinds of spatial and functional molecular structures constitute a new type of supramolecular organization in the far-from-equilibrium open systems that was called dissipative structures by I. The dissipative structure constitutes the fundamental element to understand the emergence of the spatial-functional architecture in cells and provide a conceptual framework that allows us to unify the dynamic, self-organized metabolic processes that occur in all biological organisms
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