THE MACROWORLD VERSUS THE MICROWORLD OF BIOCHEMICAL REGULATION AND CONTROL

Our understanding of cell physiology has been helped greatly by viewin g metabolism as a set of reactions catalysed by independent catalysts (enzymes) in ideal solutions. Yet the differences between this idealiz ed cell and reality have strong implications for biochemical regulatio n and control. We show here that in the real cell an enzyme controls c ell physiology in more than a single way. These different controlling modes in the real 'macroworld' can be related to one another by implem enting a new type of control analysis, which is formulated in terms of the 'microworld' of the elemental processes.