research
Every Faster Reaction Spends the Same Budget
A general result bounds how much any one transition can change a completion time—and makes every gain trade against the rest of the pathway.
Summary
A general result bounds how much any one transition can change a completion time—and makes every gain trade against the rest of the pathway.
A new theoretical result constrains how the mean first-passage time of any finite Markov chain responds when one transition rate changes. The authors show that each logarithmic sensitivity is bounded in magnitude by one and that all of the sensitivities sum to minus one, creating what they call a conserved control budget. In their analysis, changing an activation barrier or well depth can move many rates at once but cannot shift the completion time more than changing one rate; the same framework bounds kinetic-proofreading discrimination by the number of checkpoints and links it to substrate sensitivity. This is a mathematical preprint with implications for reaction networks and biological kinetics, not an experimental measurement of a particular molecule.
Why it matters
A general result bounds how much any one transition can change a completion time—and makes every gain trade against the rest of the pathway.
Limits and context
- In their analysis, changing an activation barrier or well depth can move many rates at once but cannot shift the completion time more than changing one rate; the same framework bounds kinetic-proofreading discrimination by the number of checkpoints and links it to substrate sensitivity.
- This is a mathematical preprint with implications for reaction networks and biological kinetics, not an experimental measurement of a particular molecule.
Key claims
A general result bounds how much any one transition can change a completion time—and makes every gain trade against the rest of the pathway.
Qualification: In their analysis, changing an activation barrier or well depth can move many rates at once but cannot shift the completion time more than changing one rate; the same framework bounds kinetic-proofreading discrimination by the number of checkpoints and links it to substrate sensitivity.
Evidence: source-2026-08-08-002
Sources
- arXiv preprint 2608.06368arXiv · primary research
Corrections
No corrections have been recorded for this story.