Thermodynamic and kinetic studies of a stoichiometric model of energetic metabolism under starvation conditions

Abstract A stoichiometric model of anaerobic glycolysis is presented and the influence on its dynamics by the ATP-consuming membrane transport processes and substrate input rate are studied. The model is represented by a system of four ODE (ordinary differential equations), mass conservation equations and functions of state variables, such as thermodynamic efficiency. A low substrate input rate provokes damped oscillations while a high enrgy load determines sustained oscillations in all the metabolites and in thermodynamic efficiency. Due to the lack of linearity between fluxes and forces in the oscillatory region it may be stated that oscillations appear when the system is kinetically controlled.