Entrainment and resonance in glycolysis

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Chemical Kinetics and Thermodynamics
• Systems Biology

Background:

• The glycolytic pathway is central to cellular energy production.
• Previous models suggested self-tuning and resonance enhance energy transduction efficiency.
• Decomposition of the model into phosphofructokinase (PFKase) and pyruvate kinase (PKase) subsystems was previously used.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a theoretical approach for detecting resonance effects in glycolytic oscillations without model decomposition.
• To study the response of the glycolytic system to external periodic perturbations.
• To identify chemical species crucial for self-sustained oscillations.

Main Methods:

• Computational analysis of the glycolytic reaction mechanism.
• Simulation of the system's response to externally applied periodic perturbations within the fundamental entrainment band.
• Analysis of resonance peaks in the response spectrum based on perturbation amplitude and frequency.

Main Results:

• Large increases and decreases in dissipation were observed within a narrow range of entrainment periods.
• Two resonance peaks (near autonomous oscillation and PKase subsystem period) appear for large perturbation amplitudes when T(0)(lim) approximates T(PKase).
• A single resonance peak near the autonomous oscillation period is observed for small perturbation amplitudes or when T(0)(lim) does not approximate T(PKase).

Conclusions:

• The study demonstrates a method to detect resonance effects in intact glycolytic models.
• Key chemical species essential for self-sustained oscillations were identified based on their response to perturbations.
• The findings provide a more experimentally applicable framework for understanding energy transduction in biochemical systems.