Biochemical systems analysis. II. The steady-state solutions for an n-pool system using a power-law approximation

The linearization of the dynamic equations governing biochemical systems is an inadequate approximation procedure, since the dynamic range of the variables is known to produce highly non-linear operation. A power-law approximation technique based on the non-linear nature of these reactions is presented in this paper. The range of validity is considerably greater than in the linear case, while the effort necessary to obtain steady-state solutions is about the same. The approximation procedure is applied to a general n-pool system; the nature and number of the steady-state solutions are derived. An example is also given to illustrate the different types of solutions and their physical interpretation.