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Electron carriers can be thought of as electron shuttles. These compounds can easily accept electrons (i.e., be reduced) or lose them (i.e., be oxidized). They play an essential role in energy production because cellular respiration is contingent on the flow of electrons.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Author Spotlight: Assessing the Cardiovascular Profile of Patients with Metabolic Syndrome

Published on: September 27, 2024

Interrogating metabolism as an electron flow system.

Christian Zerfaß^1,2, Munehiro Asally^1,2,3, Orkun S Soyer^1,2,3

¹Bio-Electrical Engineering (BEE) Innovation Hub, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK.

Current Opinion in Systems Biology

|April 23, 2019

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Metabolism is more than just pathways; viewing it as a dynamic flow system constrained by thermodynamics offers new insights. This perspective aids metabolic engineering and understanding diseases.

Keywords:

Cellular physiology Cellular trade-offs Electrobiology Evolution of metabolism Metabolic organisation Redox potential Thermodynamics

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Area of Science:

Cellular Metabolism
Systems Biology
Biophysics

Background:

Traditional view of metabolism as modular pathways limits understanding of its structure and dynamics.
This pathway-centric model struggles to explain key observations in cellular metabolism.

Purpose of the Study:

To highlight limitations of the pathway-centric view of metabolism.
To propose a dynamical flow system model constrained by thermodynamics and kinetics.
To suggest new avenues for metabolic engineering and disease treatment.

Main Methods:

Review of existing studies on metabolic systems.
Conceptual framework development for a dynamical flow system model.
Emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches combining physical and biological sciences.

Main Results:

The dynamical flow system model better explains metabolic complexity and dynamics.
This systems-level view provides a first-principles approach to metabolism.
Identifies limitations in predicting metabolic behavior based solely on pathways.

Conclusions:

Shifting from a pathway-centric to a dynamical flow system view is crucial for advancing metabolic research.
This new perspective can unlock novel strategies for metabolic engineering and treating metabolic diseases.
Interdisciplinary collaboration and biophysical methods are essential for future progress.