Cell bioenergetics: Simple logics, complex solution

[摘要] Cells are open systems that exchange energy and molecules with their environment. As any material system,they perform all the complex activities required for homeostasis and reproduction, obeying the thermodynamic laws.This viewpoint will argue that the basic logic governing the energy flux required to preserve cell organization andfunction is simple: to decrease the activation energy (Ea) of specific processes. Almost none of the possible chemicalreactions and energy transformations inside a cell occur at a measurable speed at room or body temperature.Enzymes or other macromolecular structures speed up particular transformations by decreasing the correspondingenergetic barriers. However, to maintain the systems in a homeostatic state, capable of sophisticated functions basedon this simple strategy requires an inconceivably complex solution. The conclusion will point to the challenging andintricate problems that cells have solved to carve the highly regulated channel through which the energy flows, fuelingthe work of these nanoscale machines.

[学科分类] 仪器

[关键词] Thermodynamics;Cellular logics;Self-organization;Complexity