Berlin 2024 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 13: Statistical Physics of Biological Systems I (joint session DY/BP)
BP 13.10: Talk
Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 12:15–12:30, BH-N 334
The Effect of Temperature on Large Biochemical Networks — •Julian Voits1 and Ulrich S. Schwarz1,2 — 1Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany — 2BioQuant-Center for Quantitative Biology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
An increase of temperature of a few Kelvin might seem modest on the absolute temperature scale, but it can have a dramatic impact on complex biosystems. Instructive examples are fever, when a rise in body temperature of 2-3K has strong effects on our immune system, or climate change, when even smaller temperature changes lead to dramatic shifts in ecosystems. From the physics point of view, the main effect of increased temperature should be the exponential acceleration of biochemical reactions (Arrhenius equation). However, it is unclear how this law plays out in the large biochemical networks of complex systems. We have developed a universal theory that describes the effect of temperature on large biochemical networks. We approach this problem with a graph theoretical interpretation of the mean first passage times of a biochemical master equation. We show that in the limit of large networks, one obtains quadratic forms of the Arrhenius plots, in excellent agreement with experimental data on developmental rates of Drosophila.
Keywords: biochemical networks; temperature effects; stochastic processes; master equation; development rates