Isothermal titration calorimetry - a new method for the quantification of microbial degradation of trace pollutants

Simple Growth–Metabolism Relations Are Revealed by Conserved Patterns of Heat Flow from Cultured Microorganisms

Quantitative analyses of cell replication address the connection between metabolism and growth. Various growth models approximate time-dependent cell numbers in culture media, but physiological implications of the parametrizations are vague. In contrast, isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC) measures with unprecedented sensitivity the heat (enthalpy) release via chemical turnover in metabolizing cells. Hence, the metabolic activity can be studied independently of modeling the time-dependence of cell numbers. Unexpectedly, IMC traces of various origins exhibit conserved patterns when expressed in the enthalpy domain rather than the time domain, as exemplified by cultures of Lactococcus lactis (prokaryote), Trypanosoma congolese (protozoan) and non-growing Brassica napus (plant) cells. The data comply extraordinarily well with a dynamic Langmuir adsorption reaction model of nutrient uptake and catalytic turnover generalized here to the non-constancy of catalytic capacity. Formal relations to Michaelis–Menten kinetics and common analytical growth models are briefly discussed. The proposed formalism reproduces the “life span” of cultured microorganisms from exponential growth to metabolic decline by a succession of distinct metabolic phases following remarkably simple nutrient–metabolism relations. The analysis enables the development of advanced enzyme network models of unbalanced growth and has fundamental consequences for the derivation of toxicity measures and the transferability of metabolic activity data between laboratories.

Molecular Approach to the Synergistic Effect on Astringency Elicited by Mixtures of Flavanols

The interactions between salivary proteins and wine flavanols (catechin, epicatechin, and mixtures thereof) have been studied by HPLC-DAD, isothermal titration microcalorimetry, and molecular dynamics simulations. Chromatographic results suggest that the presence of these flavanol mixtures could facilitate the formation of precipitates to the detriment of soluble aggregates. Comparison between the thermodynamic parameters obtained showed remarkably higher negative values of ΔG in the system containing the mixture of both flavanols in comparison to the systems containing individual flavanols, indicating a more favorable scenario in the mixing system. Also, the apparent binding constants were higher in this system. Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations suggested a faster and greater cooperative binding of catechin and epicatechin to IB7₁₄ peptides when both types of flavanols are present simultaneously in solution.

Fitting two- and three-site binding models to isothermal titration calorimetric data

As isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) gains popularity for the characterization of enthalpies and equilibrium association constants of simple 1:1 biomolecular interactions, its use for more complex systems is growing. The method is increasingly used to study interactions in which a single binding partner (molecule "A") interacts with multiple copies of a second partner ("B"); thus examinations of ABB and ABBB interactions are not uncommon. The structure of ITC data (commonly formatted as isotherms) has a strong bearing on the ability of the researcher to extract the necessary parameters from them. Usually, only 10-30 injections are recorded in a single ITC experiment. Even if replicates are performed, the data must support the extraction of up to twelve parameters from an ABBB system. Further, the refinement of some of the parameters is largely driven by only a subset of the data. The ability of ITC data to guide the deterministic estimation of these parameters may therefore be questioned. This work assesses the ability of both empirical and simulated ITC data of ABB and ABBB systems to support the simultaneous estimation of the desired thermodynamic parameters. The results demonstrate that multiphasic isotherms tend to (but do not always) support the estimation of multiple parameters. On the other hand, uniphasic data obtained from multi-site binding systems are more problematic. In all cases, a thorough exploration of how precisely the estimated parameters are specified by the data is justified.

What does calorimetry and thermodynamics of living cells tell us?

This article presents and compares several thermodynamic methods for the quantitative interpretation of data from calorimetric measurements. Heat generation and absorption are universal features of microbial growth and product formation as well as of cell cultures from animals, plants and insects. The heat production rate reflects metabolic changes in real time and is measurable on-line. The detection limit of commercially available calorimetric instruments can be low enough to measure the heat of 100,000 aerobically growing bacteria or of 100 myocardial cells. Heat can be monitored in reaction vessels ranging from a few nanoliters up to many cubic meters. Most important the heat flux measurement does not interfere with the biological process under investigation. The practical advantages of calorimetry include the waiver of labeling and reactants. It is further possible to assemble the thermal transducer in a protected way that reduces aging and thereby signal drifts. Calorimetry works with optically opaque solutions. All of these advantages make calorimetry an interesting method for many applications in medicine, environmental sciences, ecology, biochemistry and biotechnology, just to mention a few. However, in many cases the heat signal is merely used to monitor biological processes but only rarely to quantitatively interpret the data. Therefore, a significant proportion of the information potential of calorimetry remains unutilized. To fill this information gap and to motivate the reader using the full information potential of calorimetry, various methods for quantitative data interpretations are presented, evaluated and compared with each other. Possible errors of interpretation and limitations of quantitative data analysis are also discussed.

Insufficient oxygen diffusion leads to distortions of microbial growth parameters assessed by isothermal microcalorimetry

Oxygen limitation is an important, but often underestimated effect influencing microbial growth parameters derived from calorimetric routine measurements.

Applications of isothermal titration calorimetry in pure and applied research--survey of the literature from 2010

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is a biophysical technique for measuring the formation and dissociation of molecular complexes and has become an invaluable tool in many branches of science from cell biology to food chemistry. By measuring the heat absorbed or released during bond formation, ITC provides accurate, rapid, and label-free measurement of the thermodynamics of molecular interactions. In this review, we survey the recent literature reporting the use of ITC and have highlighted a number of interesting studies that provide a flavour of the diverse systems to which ITC can be applied. These include measurements of protein-protein and protein-membrane interactions required for macromolecular assembly, analysis of enzyme kinetics, experimental validation of molecular dynamics simulations, and even in manufacturing applications such as food science. Some highlights include studies of the biological complex formed by Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin C3 and the murine T-cell receptor, the mechanism of membrane association of the Parkinson's disease-associated protein α-synuclein, and the role of non-specific tannin-protein interactions in the quality of different beverages. Recent developments in automation are overcoming limitations on throughput imposed by previous manual procedures and promise to greatly extend usefulness of ITC in the future. We also attempt to impart some practical advice for getting the most out of ITC data for those researchers less familiar with the method.

Potentials and limitations of miniaturized calorimeters for bioprocess monitoring

In theory, heat production rates are very well suited for analysing and controlling bioprocesses on different scales from a few nanolitres up to many cubic metres. Any bioconversion is accompanied by a production (exothermic) or consumption (endothermic) of heat. The heat is tightly connected with the stoichiometry of the bioprocess via the law of Hess, and its rate is connected to the kinetics of the process. Heat signals provide real-time information of bioprocesses. The combination of heat measurements with respirometry is theoretically suited for the quantification of the coupling between catabolic and anabolic reactions. Heat measurements have also practical advantages. Unlike most other biochemical sensors, thermal transducers can be mounted in a protected way that prevents fouling, thereby minimizing response drifts. Finally, calorimetry works in optically opaque solutions and does not require labelling or reactants. It is surprising to see that despite all these advantages, calorimetry has rarely been applied to monitor and control bioprocesses with intact cells in the laboratory, industrial bioreactors or ecosystems. This review article analyses the reasons for this omission, discusses the additional information calorimetry can provide in comparison with respirometry and presents miniaturization as a potential way to overcome some inherent weaknesses of conventional calorimetry. It will be discussed for which sample types and scientific question miniaturized calorimeter can be advantageously applied. A few examples from different fields of microbiological and biotechnological research will illustrate the potentials and limitations of chip calorimetry. Finally, the future of chip calorimetry is addressed in an outlook.