Name: cells stay out of equilibrium
Uploaded: 2023-04-30T10:08:50.000Z
Duration: 1 min 16 s
Channel: JoVE

K12 Standards

Louisiana Student Standards for Science

High School

Chemistry

Matter And Its Interactions

HS-PS1-4

Non-equilibrium in the Cell

A reversible reaction in a closed system, such as a capped flask, reaches equilibrium and cannot carry out any work in the equilibrium state.
In contrast, living cells are open systems that exchange energy and matter with their surroundings. This exchange helps them to avoid an equilibrium state and allows biochemical reactions to proceed to meet the cell&#39;s needs.
Instead, cells maintain a steady state where concentrations of reactants and products remain relatively constant over time.
The controlled amounts of these metabolites at non-equilibrium concentrations are necessary for cell survival and function.
A cell maintains non-equilibrium through a continuous supply of reactants and rapid removal of products. The products are either transferred out of the system or act as reactants for another reaction.
In a steady state, the cell senses changes in concentrations, and metabolic and signaling pathways react to counteract the change.
For example, during fasting, glycogen is broken down into glucose molecules to maintain a regular glucose supply to cells.

non-equilibrium in the cell

An important concept in studying metabolism and energy is that of chemical equilibrium. Most chemical reactions are reversible. They can proceed in both directions, releasing energy into their environment in one direction, and absorbing it from the environment in the other direction. The same is true for the chemical reactions involved in cell metabolism, such as the breaking down and building up of proteins into and from individual amino acids, respectively. Reactants within a closed system will undergo chemical reactions in both directions until they reach a state of equilibrium, which is one of the lowest possible free energy and a state of maximal entropy. To push the reactants and products away from a state of equilibrium requires energy. Either reactants or products must be added, removed, or changed.
If a cell were a closed system, its chemical reactions would reach equilibrium, and it would die because there would be insufficient free energy left to perform the necessary work to maintain life. In a living cell, chemical reactions are constantly moving towards equilibrium, but never reach it. This is because a living cell is an open system. Materials pass in and out, the cell recycles the products of certain chemical reactions into other reactions, and there is never chemical equilibrium. In this way, living organisms are in a constant energy-requiring, uphill battle against equilibrium and entropy. This constant energy supply ultimately comes from sunlight, which produces nutrients in the photosynthesis process.
Steady state refers to the relatively stable internal environment required to maintain life. In order to function properly, cells require appropriate conditions such as proper temperature, pH, and appropriate concentration of diverse chemicals. These conditions may, however, change from one moment to the next. Organisms are able to maintain homeostatic internal conditions within a narrow range almost constantly, despite environmental changes, by activation of regulatory mechanisms. For example, an organism needs to regulate body temperature through the thermoregulation process.
This text is adapted from Openstax, Biology 2e, <a href="https://openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/6-2-potential-kinetic-free-and-activation-energy">Section 6.2</a> <a href="https://openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/6-2-potential-kinetic-free-and-activation-energy">Potential, Kinetic, Free, and Activation Energy</a> <a href="https://openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/6-2-potential-kinetic-free-and-activation-energy">Section</a> and <a href="https://openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/1-2-themes-and-concepts-of-biology">1.2 Themes and Concepts of Biology</a>.

An important concept in studying metabolism and energy is that of chemical equilibrium. Most chemical reactions are reversible. They can proceed in both ...

Education

JoVE Core

Cell Biology

Unit 1

Energy and Catalysis

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

cells stay out of equilibrium

Cells stay out of chemical equilibrium by constantly using energy and moving materials in and out. Chemical reactions in metabolism are often reversible. They can go in both directions. In one direction, they release energy to the surroundings. In the reverse direction, they absorb energy.

The same idea applies to reactions that build and break down cell molecules. Proteins, for example, can be broken into individual amino acids, and amino acids can be used to build proteins again. In a closed system, reactants keep reacting in both directions until they reach equilibrium. That state has very low free energy and maximum entropy, which means the system is as disordered as it can be.

A cell cannot stay alive if it becomes a closed system. Its reactions would eventually reach equilibrium, and there would not be enough free energy left to do the work needed for life. Living cells avoid this because they are open systems. Materials move in and out, and cells recycle the products of some reactions into others. As a result, chemical equilibrium is never reached.

Living organisms must keep pushing against equilibrium and entropy. This constant effort needs energy. In the long run, that energy comes from sunlight, which helps produce nutrients through photosynthesis. Cells also maintain a steady state, which is a relatively stable internal environment needed for life. They need proper temperature, pH, and the right amounts of many chemicals. These conditions can change from moment to moment, so organisms use regulatory mechanisms to keep internal conditions within a narrow range. Thermoregulation, or body temperature control, is one example.

Cells Stay Out of Equilibrium

the first law of thermodynamics

Energy Changes in Cells and Matter

The first law of thermodynamics describes how energy changes form in the universe. The total amount of energy stays constant. Energy can move from one place to another or change into a different form, but it cannot be created or destroyed. These energy changes happen in everyday life. A light bulb changes electrical energy into light energy. A gas stove changes chemical energy in natural gas into heat energy. Plants also carry out a major energy transformation when they convert sunlight energy...

the second law of thermodynamics

Entropy and Spontaneous Change

Entropy helps predict whether a process will happen on its own. Entropy is a measure of randomness or disorder in a system. High entropy means high disorder and low energy. A student’s bedroom is a simple example. If no work is done, the room becomes messy over time. That messy state is highly disordered and has high entropy. To make the room clean again, energy must be added as the student puts things away. That organized state has low entropy. Processes that increase the entropy of the...

enthalpy within the cell

Cellular Enthalpy and Energy Changes

Cellular enthalpy describes how heat and energy change during chemical and physical processes. Enthalpy is written as H and is defined as the sum of a system’s internal energy, U, and the product of pressure and volume, PV. It is a state function, which means its value depends on the state of the system, not the path taken. Scientists cannot measure the enthalpy of a single substance directly. They can determine enthalpy changes, or ΔH, for a process instead. For reactions or changes that...

entropy within the cell

Cell Energy Loss and Entropy

Cell energy loss and entropy explain why living things need constant energy input. Cells obtain energy, transform it, and use it to do work, but these transfers are never completely efficient. In each transfer, some energy is lost in a form that cannot be used. In many cases, that lost energy is heat energy.

an introduction to free energy

Gibbs Free Energy and Reaction Work

Gibbs free energy describes the usable energy in a chemical reaction. It helps scientists compare how much energy different reactions release. This measurement is called Gibbs free energy, or G, after Josiah Willard Gibbs. The second law of thermodynamics explains why not all energy stays available for work. Some energy is lost in an unusable form, such as heat, and this loss increases entropy. Gibbs free energy is the energy left after that entropy loss is taken into account. Every chemical...

endergonic and exergonic reactions in the cell

endergonic-and-exergonic-reactions-in-the-cell

Cell Reactions That Release or Store Energy

Cell reactions can either release energy or store it for later use. In chemistry, this difference is described by the value of ΔG, or free energy change. When energy is released during a reaction, ΔG is negative. The products then have less free energy than the reactants because some free energy has been given off. Reactions with a negative ΔG are called exergonic reactions. Exergonic means energy is leaving the system. These reactions are also called spontaneous reactions because they can...

the equilibrium binding constant and binding strength

the-equilibrium-binding-constant-and-binding-strength

How Equilibrium Binding Constant Affects Binding

The equilibrium binding constant describes how strongly two molecules bind at equilibrium. It is a useful way to compare binding strength in molecular interactions. This topic focuses on how binding is measured and what the equilibrium binding constant means. A higher value indicates stronger binding, while a lower value indicates weaker binding. Understanding this constant helps explain how tightly molecules stay together under equilibrium conditions. The page also connects the binding...

free energy and equilibrium

Free Energy and Reaction Direction

Free energy and reaction direction are linked in chemical equilibrium. A free energy change, ΔG, shows the driving force for a process. When ΔG is negative, the process is driven forward. When ΔG is positive, the reverse direction is favored. When ΔG is zero, the forward and reverse driving forces are equal, and the system is at equilibrium. The reaction quotient, Q, helps show how close a system is to equilibrium. Q is the numerical value of the mass action expression for the system. It can...

Cells stay out of chemical equilibrium by constantly using energy and moving materials in and out. Chemical reactions in metabolism are often reversible. They can go in both directions. In one direction, they release energy to the surroundings. In the reverse direction, they absorb energy. The same idea applies to reactions that build and break down cell molecules. Proteins, for example, can be broken into individual amino acids, and amino acids can be used to build proteins again. In a closed...

oxidation and reduction of organic molecules

oxidation-and-reduction-of-organic-molecules

Electron Carriers in Cell Energy Transfer

Cell energy production depends on redox reactions, which are oxidation and reduction reactions that happen together. In oxidation, an electron is removed from an atom in a compound. In reduction, that same electron is added to another compound. Because these reactions usually occur as a pair, they are called redox reactions. When a molecule loses an electron, its potential energy goes down. The electron does not stay free in the cytoplasm. Instead, it moves to a second compound and reduces...

introduction to enzymes

Enzyme Function, Cofactors, and Inhibitors

Enzymes are proteins that speed up biochemical reactions without being used up. Humans have used enzymes since about 7000 BCE, when they fermented sugars to make alcohol without knowing the reaction was enzyme-catalyzed. The word enzyme was coined by Wilhelm Kuhne in 1877. It comes from the Greek words en, meaning “in” or “within,” and zyme, meaning “yeast.” Enzymes work through active sites, which are regions that bind substrates and help convert them into products. Many enzymes also have...

enzymes and activation energy

How Enzymes Lower Reaction Energy

Enzymes lower the energy needed for a chemical reaction to begin. That starting energy is called activation energy, or free energy of activation, and it is often written as Ea. During a reaction, bonds break and new bonds form. In glucose breakdown, for example, bonds between carbon atoms break and release energy because they are energy-storing bonds. Before a reaction can move forward, reactant molecules must reach a high-energy, unstable shape called the transition state. To get there, the...

introduction to enzyme kinetics

Graphing Enzyme Kinetics Data

Enzyme kinetics uses graphs to show how fast a biochemical reaction happens. Scientists measure the initial reaction rate, or velocity (Vo), at different substrate concentrations ([S]). They may also run trials with inhibitors or other molecules that change the reaction rate. The results are often plotted as Vo against [S]. For many single-substrate reactions, the data fits the Michaelis-Menten equation. This equation, named after Leonor Michaelis and Maud Menten, helps estimate the maximum...

turnover number and catalytic efficiency

How Fast Enzymes Work in Digestion

Enzymes can work at very different speeds, and their turnover number shows how fast they convert substrate molecules into products. Turnover number is the maximum number of substrate molecules an enzyme can transform per unit time. For most enzymes, this value is between 1 and 1000 molecules per second. Some enzymes are especially fast. Catalase has the highest known turnover number and can convert up to 2.8×10^6 molecules of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen each second. Lysozyme has...

catalytically perfect enzymes

Diffusion-Controlled Enzymes and Reaction Speed

Catalytically perfect enzymes are enzymes that speed up biochemical reactions at very high rates. The idea was first proposed by W. J. Albery and J. R. Knowles in 1976. These enzymes have catalytic efficiency values of about 10^8 to 10^9 M^-1 s^-1 and are also called diffusion-controlled enzymes because diffusion of the substrate into the active site is the only rate-limiting step. Examples of catalytically perfect enzymes include triose phosphate isomerase, fumarase, and superoxide dismutase.

introduction to mechanisms of enzyme catalysis

introduction-to-mechanisms-of-enzyme-catalysis

How Enzymes Change Shape to Catalyze

Enzyme catalysis depends on how enzymes bind substrates and how the active site responds during the reaction. Scientists once described this process with a simple lock-and-key model, where the enzyme and substrate fit together in one instant. Research now supports induced fit, a more dynamic model in which binding causes a small change in the enzyme’s shape. That shift helps create an ideal match between the enzyme and the substrate’s transition state, which improves catalysis. The active site...

ligand binding and linkage

Ligand Binding and Allosteric Effects

Ligand binding and linkage describe how one molecule can affect another when it binds to a protein. In this topic, the focus is on how binding at one site can influence activity at a different site on the same protein. This idea is important for understanding protein function in high school biology. It helps explain why some proteins respond more strongly after a ligand attaches. The transcript centers on the connection between ligand binding and linkage, which is a key concept in molecular...

cooperative allosteric transitions

How Proteins Shift Shape Together

Proteins can change shape in a coordinated way during allosteric transitions. In a cooperative transition, one part of the protein affects another part, so the change spreads through the molecule. These shape changes help proteins switch between different states. The shift can influence how the protein works and how it responds to other molecules. Cooperative allosteric transitions are an important idea in protein function. They explain how a small change at one site can lead to a larger...

ribozymes

Catalytic RNA: Ribozymes in Action

Ribozymes are RNA molecules that can act as enzymes. They help speed up specific chemical reactions without being protein enzymes. This makes them an important example of RNA with more than one job in the cell. Some ribozymes can cut RNA molecules, and others can join them together. This shows that RNA can do catalytic work as well as carry genetic information. Ribozymes are a key part of how scientists think about the many roles of RNA in biology. One well-known ribozyme is ribonuclease P,...

atp energy storage and release

ATP Powers Cellular Transport and Reactions

ATP powers cellular transport and many reactions by transferring energy through phosphorylation. ATP is a highly unstable molecule. If it is not used quickly, it breaks down into ADP and inorganic phosphate, and the released energy is lost as heat. Cells use ATP through energy coupling. This means the exergonic reaction of ATP hydrolysis is linked to an endergonic reaction so the reaction can move forward. One major example is the sodium-potassium pump, a transmembrane ion pump that is vital...

atp and macromolecule synthesis

ATP in Building Cell Macromolecules

ATP helps cells build biological macromolecules. These organic compounds are mainly made of carbon atoms bonded to hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and small amounts of other elements. The four major classes of biological macromolecules are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Most macromolecules start as small subunits called monomers. Cells join monomers with covalent bonds to make larger molecules called polymers. This building process needs energy, so cells depend on ATP, the...

coupled reactions

ATP Powers Cellular Work

ATP powers many kinds of cellular work by coupling energy-releasing reactions to energy-requiring ones. Some reactions happen on their own and release energy. Others need an energy input to move forward. Cells link these reactions so important processes can still occur. Adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, stores energy that cells can use quickly. ATP hydrolysis is the breaking of ATP, and it releases energy. Cells often use that released energy to drive endergonic reactions, which are reactions...

key terms and concepts

Learn how cells avoid chemical equilibrium by using energy, moving materials in and out, and keeping stable internal conditions through homeostasis.

Cells Stay Out of Equilibrium | JoVE K12

cell biology

JoVE Core Cell Biology illustrates complex cellular processes in easy-to-understand yet comprehensive animated video lessons. This collection focuses on the essential components and functions of cells, including organelles and membranes, cellular transport, and cell energetics. It is complemented by scientist-in-action videos that demonstrate the application of cell biology in real-world research experiments.

HS-PS1-6

Next Generation Science Standards

Life Science

from-molecules-to-organisms-structures-and-processes

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

HS-LS1-7

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills

Biology

BIO.11

BIO.11.A

south-carolina-college-and-career-ready-science-standards

South Carolina College and Career Ready Science Standards

Matter and Its Interactions

C-PS1-6

new-york-state-science-learning-standards

New York State Science Learning Standards

matter-and-energy-in-organisms-and-ecosystems

Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems

HS-LS2-4.

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Periodic Classification of the Elements

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The Periodic Table And Organismal Elements

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HS-PS1-1

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Stoichiometry, Product Yield, and Limiting Reactants

Source: Smaa Koraym at Johns Hopkins University, MD, USA

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Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter

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Physical Properties of Matter

A physical property is ...

Dynamic Equilibrium

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Construct and revise an explanation for the outcome of a simple chemical reaction based on the outermost electron states of atoms, trends in the periodic table, and knowledge of the patterns of chemical properties.  Clarification Statement: Chemistry: Examples of chemical reactions could include the reaction of sodium and chlorine, carbon and oxygen, or carbon and hydrogen. Reaction classification aids in the prediction of products (e.g. synthesis, decomposition, single displacement, double displacement, and acid-base).

HS-PS1-2

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Intermolecular Forces and Physical Properties



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Electric Field of Two Equal and Opposite Charges

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Electric Field

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Ionic Bonding and Electron Transfer

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Electric Dipoles and Dipole Moment

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Plan and conduct an investigation to gather evidence to compare the structure of substances at the macroscale to infer the strength of electrical forces between particles.  Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on understanding the strengths of forces between particles, not on naming specific intermolecular forces (such as dipole-dipole). Examples of particles could include ions, atoms, molecules, and network solids (such as graphite). Examples of macro-properties of substances could include the melting point and boiling point, vapor pressure, and surface tension.

HS-PS1-3

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Bond Dissociation Energy and Activation Energy

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Develop a model to illustrate that the release or absorption of energy from a chemical reaction system depends upon the changes in total bond energy.  Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the idea that a chemical reaction is a system that affects the energy change.  Examples of models could include molecular-level drawings and diagrams of reactions, graphs showing the relative energies of reactants and products, and representations showing energy is conserved.

Cells Stay Out of Equilibrium

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