Entropic enzymes: The thermodynamics of polymer metabolism
Entropic enzymes: The thermodynamics of polymer metabolism
- Datum: 04.11.2016
- Uhrzeit: 10:00 - 11:00
- Vortragende(r): Prof. Dr. Oliver Ebenhöh, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
- Ort: Max-Planck-Institut Magdeburg
- Raum: Kleiner Seminarraum "Wiener"
Abstract:
Enzymes are efficient catalysts of biochemical reactions. Commonly,
enzymes are considered to be highly specific to only a single
biochemical reaction. However, many enzymes have a broad substrate
specificity by recognising certain submolecular patterns of their
substrates and catalysing a particular type of reaction. For
carbohydrate polymers, for example, this leads to the situation in which
a single enzyme can in principle catalyse an infinite number of reactions.
This poses challenges for the theoretical description of such enzymes:
how can the dynamics be described? What determines the equilibrium
distribution?
We show how the action of polymer-active enzymes can be described by
concepts from statistical thermodynamics. By deriving a formal analogy
between these systems, the importance of the mixing entropy is
highlighted. From this theoretical understanding we develop ideas for
the kinetic description of such enzymes. Further, we find the most
generalised form to determine complex equilibria, and illustrate how
this can be employed to derive a minimal 3-variable model of the
Calvin-Benson-Bassham Cycle.