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PMID: 3657214 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Dominance is not inevitable.

Journal of theoretical biology ·Vol. 125 ·No. 3 ·1987-04-07 ·Pages 333-8

Cornish-Bowden A

Abstract

In a diploid organism, a mutant gene that results in elimination of an enzyme activity in the homozygote is almost universally found to be recessive, so that the heterozygote phenotype is virtually indistinguishable from the wild type. It has been argued (H. Kacser & J. A. Burns, Genetics 97, 639-666 (1981)) that there is no need to look to evolution for an explanation of this phenomenon, as it is an inevitable consequence of the low control coefficients for metabolic flux possessed by nearly all enzymes. However, it is possible to envisage pathways in which every enzyme is more than half-saturated, so that moderate changes in the concentration of any enzyme result in substantial changes in metabolic flux. Such behaviour can occur, for example, if the limiting rates of the enzymes decrease as one proceeds along the pathway and the precursor concentration is large compared with the Michaelis constants of all the enzymes. Consequently one does require an explanation in terms of natural selection of why such pathways are apparently not observed in nature.

MeSH Terms
Computer Simulation Enzymes/metabolism Genes, Dominant Models, Genetic Mutation
Chemicals
Enzymes
Authors & Affiliations
1 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Cornish-Bowden A
Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago.
Article Info
Journal
Journal of theoretical biology
Abbr.
J Theor Biol
ISSN
0022-5193
Published
1987-04-07
Pages
333-8
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
0376342
Subset
IM
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