In metabolism research, thermodynamics is usually used to determine the directionality of a
reaction or the feasibility of a pathway. However, the relationship between thermodynamic
potentials and fluxes is not limited to questions of directionality: thermodynamics also affects
the kinetics of reactions through the flux-force relationship, which states that the logarithm of
the ratio between the forward and reverse fluxes is directly proportional to the change in
Gibbs energy due to a reaction (ΔrG′). Accordingly, if an enzyme catalyzes a reaction with …

In metabolism research, thermodynamics is usually used to determine the directionality of a
reaction or the feasibility of a pathway. However, the relationship between thermodynamic
potentials and fluxes is not limited to questions of directionality: thermodynamics also affects
the kinetics of reactions through the flux-force relationship, which states that the logarithm of
the ratio between the forward and reverse fluxes is directly proportional to the change in
Gibbs energy due to a reaction (DrG9). Accordingly, if an enzyme catalyzes a reaction with a …