Parallels between Gluconeogenesis and Synchronous Machines

Biological diversity particularly at molecular level is astounding and can be used for rational manipulation of biological organisms. To analyze molecular diversity in its full scope computational models of biological organisms and biochemical pathways are indispensable. Engineering Sciences can be of great help in construction of these models. The central feature of modern engineering has been system level design. The differences between biological systems and engineering systems are notable, particularly at the molecular and device level. However, convergent evolution is thought to yield remarkable similarities at higher levels of organization. Here we compare an electrical engineering system with a biological system. We take the example of synchronous machines and gluconeogenesis. A biochemical system like gluconeogenesis is not just an assembly of enzymes. In addition to the list which catalogs the individual components, it is essential to understand how individual components dynamically interact during such operation. In such an attempt the concept of computational complexity is applied to both gluconeogenesis and synchronous machines The Church-Turing hypothesis is used as the basis to construct models of gluconeogenesis and synchronous machines . It is shown that both synchronous machines and gluconeogenesis accept context sensitive languages and models of computation of both the systems are universal. Thus we conclude that for construction of computational models of biochemical diversity in biological organisms, engineering systems can provide important clues.