The Dynamics of Zeroth-Order Ultrasensitivity: A Critical Phenomenon in Cell Biology

It is well known since the pioneering work of Goldbeter and Koshland [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 78, pp. 6840-6844 (1981)] that cellular phosphorylation- dephosphorylation cycle (PdPC), catalyzed by kinase and phosphatase under saturated condition with zeroth order enzyme kinetics, exhibits ultrasensitivity, sharp transition. We analyse the dynamics aspects of the zeroth order PdPC kinetics and show a critical slowdown akin to the phase transition in condensed matter physics. We demonstrate that an extremely simple, though somewhat mathematically "singular" model is a faithful representation of the ultrasentivity phenomenon. The simplified mathematical model will be valuable, as a component, in developing complex cellular signaling netowrk theory as well as having a pedagogic value.

• Publication year

  2010

• Venue

  Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems - Series S

• Publication date

  2010-12-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Mathematics, Physics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3934/dcdss.2011.4.1457arXiv 1205.6219
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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