Physiologists and biochemists frequently ignore the importance of adjusting equilibrium constants to the ionic conditions of the cell prior to calculating a number of bioenergetic and kinetic parameters. The present study examines the effect of pH and free magnesium levels (free [Mg2+]) on the apparent equilibrium constants (K') of creatine kinase (ATP: creatine N-phosphotransferase; EC 2.7.3.2), adenylate kinase (ATP:AMP phosphotransferase; EC 2.7.4.3) and adenosinetriphosphatase (ATP phosphohydrolase; EC 3.6.1.3) reactions. We show how K' can be calculated using the equilibrium constant of a specified chemical reaction (Kref) and the appropriate acid-dissociation and Mg(2+)-binding constants at an ionic strength (I) of 0.25 mol l-1 and 38 degrees C. Substituting the experimentally determined intracellular pH and free [Mg2+] into the equation containing a known Kref and two variables, pH and free [Mg2+], enables K' to be calculated at the experimental ionic conditions. Knowledge of K' permits calculation of cytosolic phosphorylation ratio ([ATP]/[ADP][Pi]), cytosolic free [ADP], free [AMP], standard transformed Gibbs energy of formation (delta fG' degrees ATP) and the transformed Gibbs energy of the system (delta fG' ATP) for the biological system. Such information is vital for the quantification of organ and tissue bioenergetics under physiological and pathophysiological conditions.
In the field: an interview with Martha Muñoz
Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor at Yale University, investigating the evolutionary biology of anole lizards and lungless salamanders. In our new Conversation, she talks about her fieldwork in Indonesia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and the Appalachian Mountains, including a death-defying dash to the top of a mountain through an approaching hurricane.
Call for new preLighters
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preLights is the preprint highlighting community supported by The Company of Biologists. At the heart of preLights are our preLighters: early-career researchers who select and write about interesting new preprints for the research community. We are currently looking for new preLighters to join our team. Find out more and apply here.
Graham Scott in conversation with Big Biology
Graham Scott talks to Big Biology about the oxygen cascade in mice living on mountaintops, extreme environments for such small organisms. In this JEB-sponsored episode, they discuss the concept of symmorphosis and the evolution of the oxygen cascade.
Trap-jaw ants coordinate tendon and exoskeleton for perfect mandible arc
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Trap-jaw ants run the risk of tearing themselves apart when they fire off their mandibles, but Greg Sutton & co have discovered that the ants simultaneously push and pull the mandibles using energy stored in a head tendon and their exoskeleton to drive the jaws in a perfect arc.
Hearing without a tympanic ear
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In their Review, Grace Capshaw, Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard and Catherine Carr explore the mechanisms of hearing in extant atympanate vertebrates and the implications for the early evolution of tympanate hearing.
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