Growth-induced instability in metabolic networks

Product-feedback inhibition is a ubiquitous regulatory scheme for maintaining homeostasis in living cells. Individual metabolic pathways with product-feedback inhibition are stable as long as one pathway step is rate limiting. However, pathways are often coupled both by the use of a common substrate and by stoichiometric utilization of their products for cell growth. We show that such a coupled network with product-feedback inhibition may exhibit limit-cycle oscillations which arise via a Hopf bifurcation. Our results highlight novel evolutionary constraints on the architecture of metabolism.