title: Enzymes are open systems.
abstract: The exchange of mass, energy, and information with the environment typical of open systems can also be found in enzymes. An enzyme is able to receive information on substrate concentration in an arbitrary concentration range. This actually follows from the elementary solution of Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The Michaelis constant can be seen as a relation between the decreasing parameter of a zero-order reaction and the increasing parameter of a first-order reaction over a certain time interval. This excludes the state of zero-order kinetics and consequently the state of zero content of concentration information.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Plzen, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Zahradník
mesh_terms: D004798:Enzymes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*; D007700:Kinetics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D015233:Models, Statistical
chemical_list: D004798:Enzymes