A thermodynamically based correlation for maintenance gibbs energy requirements in aerobic and anaerobic chemotrophic growth

Abstract

A thermodynamic framework has been provided for the description of maintenance requirements of microorganisms. The central parameter is the biomass specific Gibbs energy consumption for maintenance, m(E) (kJ/C-mol biomass . h). A large set of data has been used including (i) a large range of different organisms (bacteria, yeasts, plant cells), (ii) mixed cultures, (iii) heterotrophic and autotrophic growth, (iv) growth under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, and (v) a large temperature range (5-75 degrees C). It appears that only the temperature has a major influence, with an energy of activation of 69 kJ/mol. Different electron donors or electron acceptors only show a very minor influence on m(E). On the basis of the data set, temperature correlations of m(E) have been derived for aerobic and anaerobic growth. The generalized concept for maintenance Gibbs energy is used to establish a correlation which allows the estimation of the biomass yield on electron donor as a function of C-source, electron donor, electron acceptor, N source, growth rate, and temperature. The advantage of using the m(E) parameter over other maintenance-related parameters (like mu(e), m(O2), m(D), gamma(D)m(D)) is discussed.

Significance of archaeal nitrification in hypoxic waters of the Baltic Sea

“…In our measurements, potential nitrification rates usually were one order of magnitude higher than the corresponding CO 2 fixation activities. This is in line with the 10:1 ratio of N oxidized per C incorporated reported for nitrifiers (Tijhuis et al, 1993;Middelburg, 2011) and suggests that CO 2 fixation in Baltic Sea hypoxic zones is coupled mainly to nitrification by AOA. In general, the rates of CO 2 dark fixation in hypoxic waters were notably lower than those in the upper sulfidic zone, a difference attributed to the activity in the latter of high numbers of chemoautotrophic denitrifiers of the Sulfurimonas sp.…”

Impact of Thermodynamic Principles in Systems Biology

“…Because living cells have similar membranes and composition, it can be assumed that different cells require a similar amount of energy expenditure for maintenance. It has indeed been found that Gibbs energy needed for maintenance is very similar for a large range of microorganisms and only depends on absolute temperature (T) [11].…”

Biothermodynamics of live cells: a tool for biotechnology and biochemical engineering

“…A complete prediction of the growth stoichiometry thus requires a correlation for estimating the maintenance coefficient, which then enables one to compute Y X=S at low specific growth rates using the well-known Herbert-Pirt relation. Tijhuis et al [76] placed this argument on a thermodynamic foundation by observing that maintenance reactions will increase the Gibbs energy dissipation rate as shown by Eq. (40):…”

“…The following correlation for the maintenance Gibbs energy dissipation was developed by Tijhuis et al [76] based on an analysis of a large body of published data:…”