Resources for the Thermodynamics of Biochemical Reactions

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Sources of Experimental Data

3. Calculation of Standard Thermodynamic Properties of Species from Apparent Equilibrium Constants and Heats of Biochemical Reactions

4. Calculation of Standard Transformed Thermodynamic Properties of Reactants and Reactions at Specified pH

5. Further Transformed Thermodynamic Properties

6. Maxwell Relations

7. Use of Mathematica®

8. Statistical Mechanics of Systems of Biochemical Reactions

9. Names of Enzymes

10. Acknowledgement

8. Statistical Mechanics of Biochemical Thermodynamics

Gibbs introduced the grand partition function to treat equilibrium in a system involving a single species that is connected to a reservoir of that species through a semipermeable membrane. A semigrand partition function is used when the system contains other species that cannot go through the semipermeable membrane. Semigrand partition functions can be used to represent the biochemical reaction systems discussed above at specified pH, specified concentrations of coenzymes, or specified concentrations of molecular oxygen. The most recent publication on this topic is

R.A. Alberty, Systems of Biochemical Reactions from the Point of View of a Semigrand Partition Function, Biophys. Chem. 95, 1-10 (2001).

9. Names of Enzymes

In keeping track of many enzyme-catalyzed reactions it helps to use IUBMB numbers. The most recent book on IUBMB Recommendations is

E.C. Webb, Enzyme Nomenclature, Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1992

but the current revisions are given on the web:
http://www.chem.qmw.ac.uk/iubmb/enzyme/

10. Acknowledgement

The research described here has been supported by NIH grant 5RO1-GM48358-07.

 

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Robert A. Alberty
Department of Chemistry
Room 6-215
MIT
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-253-2456
FAX 617-253-7030
alberty@mit.edu