Description: Biological systems differ from chemical systems when it comes to eq
ID: 535543 • Letter: D
Question
Description: Biological systems differ from chemical systems when it comes to equilibrium. In a chemical system once equilibrium is met, no other reactions occur. In a biological system, a dynamic equilibrium is used when a substrate is turned into a product, another reaction creates the same substrate thus keeping the concentrations stagnant. This allows for cells to continually make new compounds without messing the Delta G for the systems.
Prompt: Propose what would happen if a living cell all the sudden reached chemical equilibrium. Also discuss the effects of build up of a particular substrate on a biological system. How would this affect overall delta G’s?
Explanation / Answer
If a cell were an isolated system, its chemical reactions would reach equilibrium, which would not be a good thing. If a cell's reaction reached equilibrium, the cell would die because there would be no free energy left to perform the work needed to keep it alive.
so delta G will be zero and you can't perform any work with that condition so ultimatelty your cell will be die at equilibrium.
Cells stay out of equilibrium by manipulating concentrations of reactants and also form products to keep their metabolic reactions running
like they may use energy to import reactant molecules if we keeping them at a high concentration and also they may use energy to export product molecules if we are keeping them at a low concentration.