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Open chemical reaction systems involve matter-exchange with the surroundings.As a result, species can accumulate inside a system during the course of thereaction. We study the role of network topology in governing the concentrationbuild-up inside a fixed reaction volume at steady state, particularly focusingon the effect of additional paths. The problem is akin to that in trafficnetworks where an extra route, surprisingly, can increase the overall traveltime. This is known as the Braess' paradox. Here, we report chemical analoguesof such a paradox in suitably chosen reaction networks, where extra reactionstep(s) can inflate the total concentration, denoted as `load', at steadystate. It is shown that, such counter-intuitive behavior emerges in aqualitatively similar pattern in networks of varying complexities. We thenexplore how such extra routes affect the load in a biochemical scheme of uricacid degradation. From a thorough analysis of this network, we propose afunctional role of some decomposition steps that can trim the load, indicatingthe importance of the latter in the evolution of reaction mechanisms in livingmatter.

Open chemical reaction networks, steady-state loads and Braess-like paradox