STUDIES ON GLYCOLYSIS .1. MULTIPLE STEADY-STATES IN BACTERIAL GLYCOLYSIS

A prototype kinetic model of bacterial glycolysis is formulated and a minimal set of assumptions is postulated that allows the formulation o f an approximate mathematical model. To establish a baseline for futur e investigations of more complicated situations, we assume here that e nzyme activities depend only on the concentrations of their substrates and that the cells are not growing. Under these circumstances, steady states of the glycolytic system are described by three coupled non-li near equations. The values of the kinetic parameters which give rise t o steady-state multiplicities are examined, and conditions for multipl icity are derived. The analysis indicates that up to 10 steady states can exist for some parameter values. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.