Thermodynamic Constraints Improve Metabolic Networks

Thermodynamic Constraints for Metabolic Networks

Thermodynamic constraints for biochemical networks.

The constraint-based approach to analysis of biochemical systems has emerged as a useful tool for rational metabolic engineering. Flux balance analysis (FBA) is based on the constraint of mass conservation; energy balance analysis (EBA) is based on non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The power of these approaches lies in the fact that the constraints are based on physical laws, and do not make use ...

Towards kinetic modeling of genome-scale metabolic networks without sacrificing stoichiometric, thermodynamic and physiological constraints.

Mathematical modeling is an essential tool for the comprehensive understanding of cell metabolism and its interactions with the environmental and process conditions. Recent developments in the construction and analysis of stoichiometric models made it possible to define limits on steady-state metabolic behavior using flux balance analysis. However, detailed information on enzyme kinetics and en...

Thermodynamic constraints on seismic inversions

S U M M A R Y We discuss two types of physical constraints derived from thermodynamics that can be applied during seismic inversions. The first constraint involves assimilating heat-flow measurements in seismic inversions. This can improve seismic models beneath continents, particularly beneath cratons and continental platforms where uncertainties in crustal radioactive heat production and the ...

Thermodynamic constraints on fluctuation phenomena.

The relationships among reversible Carnot cycles, the absence of perpetual motion machines, and the existence of a nondecreasing globally unique entropy function form the starting point of many textbook presentations of the foundations of thermodynamics. However, the thermal fluctuation phenomena associated with statistical mechanics has been argued to restrict the domain of validity of this ba...