1903 E. Rutherford & F. Soddy in London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 5 586 At each stage [of disintegration] one or more α ‘rays’ are projected, until the last stages are reached, when the β ‘ray’ or electron is expelled. It seems advisable to possess a special name for these now numerous atom-fragments, or new atoms, which result from the original atom after the ray has been expelled, and which remain in existence only a limited time... We would..suggest the term metabolon for this purpose.

1904 E. Rutherford Radio-activity x. 324 The various metabolons from the radio-elements are distinguished from ordinary matter by their great instability and consequently rapid rate of change.

1986 A. Pais Inward Bound vi. 119 The question, how are metabolons related to elements? had a counterpart: how are elements related to metabolons?

1985 J. B. Robinson & P. A. Srere in Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 260 10800/1 Until the present work, there has been no direct evidence for such an entity which we term a Krebs tricarboxylic acid metabolon.

1985 J. B. Robinson & P. A. Srere in Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 260 10800 (note) The word metabolon is defined as a functional complex of enzymes sequential in a metabolic pathway which is bound to a cellular structural element.

1993 Jrnl. Molecular Recognition 6 195 Enzymes of metabolic pathways are nowadays thought to be clustered and operate as ‘metabolons’.

1999 Molecular Microbiol. 31 1592 (title) Metabolite-induced metabolons: the activation of transporter-enzyme complexes by substrate binding.