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Enzyme Nomenclature NewsMetabolic thermodynamics[Prepared by Andrew McDonald and Keith Tipton] The potential value of thermodynamics for biochemical studies has, unfortunately, often been obscured by the fact that it has been treated as a branch of physical chemistry with the chemical potentials (molar Gibbs energies) of compounds often being presented and stored at reference states in which the conditions are far from those pertaining in biochemical systems. To address this problem, Prof. Hans Westerhoff convened a group of experts that included members (past and present) of the IUBMB nomenclature committee and JCBN as well as the STRENDA commission. Their work has now been published as Westerhoff, H.V., Bakker, B.M., Bommarius, A.S., Cárdenas, M.L., Cornish-Bowden, A., Fitzpatrick, P., Halling, P.J., Hatzimanikatis, V., Kettner, C., Liu, Y., McDonald, A.G., Noor, E., Pleiss, J., Raushel, F.M., Rohwer, J.M., Schnell, S., Tipton, K.F., Tsai, M.-D., von Stockar, U., Wittig, U., Wohlgemuth, R. and Woodley, J.M. (2026); Metabolic thermodynamics: pertinent reference state and energy potentials. FEBS J. [DOI: 10.1111/febs.70415]. They define a Metabolic reference state: pH = 7, pMg = 3, 99.5% water, and 1 mM each of the additional metabolic precursors’ inorganic phosphate, sulfate, ammonium, and bicarbonate, and with twin temperatures 37 and 25 °C, ionic strength 0.15 M and mM as concentration unit. It is proposed that, where appropriate, data should be presented in this state, in addition to the standard state. The differences between reference states are summarised in Table 1 of that paper, which also includes helpful algorithms for converting between states. The paper should be regarded as a recommended extension to the earlier JCBN-approved paper of Alberty, R.A., Cornish-Bowden, A., Goldberg, R.N., Hammes, G.G., Tipton, K., Westerhoff, H.V. (2011) Recommendations for terminology and databases for biochemical thermodynamics. Biophys. Chem. May;155(2-3):89-103. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bpc.2011.03.007]. [Contents] |