Abstract

Synergistic molecular responses control processes widely distributed in physical and biological systems. However, the prediction of the molecular basis for the synergism has not yet been addressed. We present a physicochemical model for the synergism based on the frequency (f) of response using the number of molecules (n) of the maximum joint response in the attojoule (aJ) range. The model predicts that individual responses containing the highest n and lowest kinetic energies (?), trigger the highest rate of change in the generation of n of the synergistic response. In addition, the rate of change in the decay of synergism is correlated with ? and potential energy (? pot) values, but is independent of the range between ? magnitude of individual responses and the ? of joint response. To evaluate our approach, we applied a mathematical model on the synergistic increase on ciliary beat f (CBF) induced by ATP and Adenosine. This produced the highest value of n of the joint response at minimal ? of individual responses. Furthermore, higher synergism presents a higher sensitivity on initial steps of transduction mechanisms. Our findings may be fruitful in the investigation of molecular synergism in physical and biological systems.