End Product Inhibition (Negative Feedback Inhibition)

End-product inhibition, also called negative feedback inhibition, occurs when the final product of a metabolic pathway begins to build up in the cell and, once concentrated enough, acts as an allosteric inhibitor of the enzyme that catalyses the very first step of that same pathway. This effectively switches off the pathway's own production as its product accumulates. The process is inherently self-regulatory: as the accumulated product is subsequently used up elsewhere in the cell, its concentration falls, the allosteric inhibition is relieved, and the first enzyme in the pathway becomes active again, restarting production. This feedback loop lets a cell automatically balance the supply of a metabolite against the current demand for it, wit …