Dataset Information

Accuracy of the Michaelis-Menten approximation when analysing effects of molecular noise.

ABSTRACT: Quantitative biology relies on the construction of accurate mathematical models, yet the effectiveness of these models is often predicated on making simplifying approximations that allow for direct comparisons with available experimental data. The Michaelis-Menten (MM) approximation is widely used in both deterministic and discrete stochastic models of intracellular reaction networks, owing to the ubiquity of enzymatic activity in cellular processes and the clear biochemical interpretation of its parameters. However, it is not well understood how the approximation applies to the discrete stochastic case or how it extends to spatially inhomogeneous systems. We study the behaviour of the discrete stochastic MM approximation as a function of system size and show that significant errors can occur for small volumes, in comparison with a corresponding mass-action system. We then explore some consequences of these results for quantitative modelling. One consequence is that fluctuation-induced sensitivity, or stochastic focusing, can become highly exaggerated in models that make use of MM kinetics even if the approximations are excellent in a deterministic model. Another consequence is that spatial stochastic simulations based on the reaction-diffusion master equation can become highly inaccurate if the model contains MM terms.

SUBMITTER: Lawson MJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4424680 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Accuracy of the Michaelis-Menten approximation when analysing effects of molecular noise.

Lawson Michael J MJ Petzold Linda L Hellander Andreas A

Journal of the Royal Society, Interface 20150501 106

Quantitative biology relies on the construction of accurate mathematical models, yet the effectiveness of these models is often predicated on making simplifying approximations that allow for direct comparisons with available experimental data. The Michaelis-Menten (MM) approximation is widely used in both deterministic and discrete stochastic models of intracellular reaction networks, owing to the ubiquity of enzymatic activity in cellular processes and the clear biochemical interpretation of it ...[more]

PMID: 25833240

Similar Datasets

Project description:Many computational models for analyzing and predicting cell physiology rely on in vitro data collected in dilute and controlled buffer solutions. However, this can mislead models because up to 40% of the intracellular volume-depending on the organism, the physiology, and the cellular compartment-is occupied by a dense mixture of proteins, lipids, polysaccharides, RNA, and DNA. These intracellular macromolecules interfere with the interactions of enzymes and their reactants and thus affect the kinetics of biochemical reactions, making in vivo reactions considerably more complex than the in vitro data indicates. In this work, we present a new, to our knowledge, type of kinetics that captures and quantifies the effect of volume exclusion and other spatial phenomena on the kinetics of elementary reactions. We further developed a framework that allows for the efficient parameterization of these kinetics using particle simulations. Our formulation, entitled generalized elementary kinetics, can be used to analyze and predict the effect of intracellular crowding on enzymatic reactions and was herein applied to investigate the influence of crowding on phosphoglycerate mutase in Escherichia coli, which exhibits prototypical reversible Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Current research indicates that many enzymes are reaction limited and not diffusion limited, and our results suggest that the influence of fractal diffusion is minimal for these reaction-limited enzymes. Instead, increased association rates and decreased dissociation rates lead to a strong decrease in the effective maximal velocities Vmax and the effective Michaelis-Menten constants KM under physiologically relevant volume occupancies. Finally, the effects of crowding were explored in the context of a linear pathway, with the finding that crowding can have a redistributing effect on the effective flux responses in the case of twofold enzyme overexpression. We suggest that this framework, in combination with detailed kinetics models, will improve our understanding of enzyme reaction networks under nonideal conditions.

Dataset Information

Accuracy of the Michaelis-Menten approximation when analysing effects of molecular noise.

Publications

Accuracy of the Michaelis-Menten approximation when analysing effects of molecular noise.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets