title: Growth-induced instability in metabolic networks.
abstract: Product-feedback inhibition is a ubiquitous regulatory scheme for maintaining homeostasis in living cells. Individual metabolic pathways with product-feedback inhibition are stable as long as one pathway step is rate limiting. However, pathways are often coupled both by the use of a common substrate and by stoichiometric utilization of their products for cell growth. We show that such a coupled network with product-feedback inhibition may exhibit limit-cycle oscillations which arise via a Hopf bifurcation. Our results highlight novel evolutionary constraints on the architecture of metabolism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Sidhartha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goyal
authors.forename: Ned S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Wingreen
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D005075:Biological Evolution; D048708:Cell Growth Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D002477:Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D005246:Feedback; D006706:Homeostasis; D007700:Kinetics