Self-Organization of Enzyme-Catalyzed Reactions Studied by the Maximum Entropy Production Principle

The self-organization of open reaction systems is closely related to specific mechanisms that allow the export of internally generated entropy from systems to their environment. According to the second law of thermodynamics, systems with effective entropy export to the environment are better internally organized. Therefore, they are in thermodynamic states with low entropy. In this context, we study how self-organization in enzymatic reactions depends on their kinetic reaction mechanisms. Enzymatic reactions in an open system are considered to operate in a non-equilibrium steady state, which is achieved by satisfying the principle of maximum entropy production (MEPP). The latter is a general theoretical framework for our theoretical analysis. Detailed theoretical studies and comparisons of the linear irreversible kinetic schemes of an enzyme reaction in two and three states are performed. In both cases, in the optimal and statistically most probable thermodynamic steady state, a diffusion-limited flux is predicted by MEPP. Several thermodynamic quantities and enzymatic kinetic parameters, such as the entropy production rate, the Shannon information entropy, reaction stability, sensitivity, and specificity constants, are predicted. Our results show that the optimal enzyme performance may strongly depend on the number of reaction steps when linear reaction mechanisms are considered. Simple reaction mechanisms with a smaller number of intermediate reaction steps could be better organized internally and could allow fast and stable catalysis. These could be features of the evolutionary mechanisms of highly specialized enzymes.

Automated summary

The self-organization of enzymatic reactions in open reaction systems is studied in relation to kinetic reaction mechanisms and entropy export to the environment. Maximum entropy production principle (MEPP) is used as a theoretical framework for analysis. The results show that the optimal enzyme performance depends on the number of reaction steps and that simple reaction mechanisms with fewer steps may be more internally organized and allow faster and more stable catalysis, possibly being features of the evolutionary mechanisms of highly specialized enzymes.