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Related Experiment Videos

Dominance is not inevitable.

A Cornish-Bowden1

  • 1Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago.

Journal of Theoretical Biology
|April 7, 1987
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Most enzyme mutations are recessive because enzymes have low control over metabolic flux. However, some pathways could theoretically show dominant mutations, but these are rarely observed in nature, suggesting a role for natural selection.

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Area of Science:

  • Biochemistry
  • Genetics
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • Enzyme activity mutants in diploid organisms are typically recessive, with heterozygotes appearing wild-type.
  • This recessivity has been attributed to enzymes having low control coefficients for metabolic flux.
  • However, alternative pathway structures could lead to dominant mutant phenotypes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the theoretical possibility of metabolic pathways where enzymes are highly saturated.
  • To explore why such pathways, which could exhibit dominant mutations, are not commonly observed.
  • To consider the role of natural selection in shaping metabolic pathway evolution.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical modeling of metabolic pathways.
  • Analysis of enzyme saturation kinetics and control coefficients.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Consideration of enzyme kinetics along a pathway and precursor concentration effects.

    • Main Results:

    • Pathways where enzymes are significantly more than half-saturated are theoretically possible.
    • Such pathways could arise with decreasing enzyme limiting rates and high precursor concentrations relative to Michaelis constants.
    • These conditions could lead to substantial changes in metabolic flux from moderate enzyme changes.

    Conclusions:

    • The ubiquity of recessive enzyme mutations may not solely be explained by low control coefficients.
    • The absence of commonly observed highly saturated pathways suggests evolutionary pressures.
    • Natural selection may favor pathway structures that avoid dominant mutations, promoting metabolic stability.