Nikolaos Kaloudis

Projects: CEPOPA - Development of sustainable chemoenzymatic processes for optically pure amines from alcohols or alkynes

Institutions: University of Crete

Carolyn Lam pal

Projects: PSYSMO

Institutions: Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research Braunschweig

Thermotable core for biological chemistry

For more than a thousand chemical species of biological interest the table gives standard chemical, standard apparent chemical, and standard metabolic potentials:

  • Standard chemical potentials: extracted from various literature references (data sources indicated below the Table)
  • Standard apparent chemical potentials as the above standard chemical potentials but further transformed for H+ and ionic strength; for Alberty conditions (pH=7.14, pMg=3.57, I=0.25 M Osm=0 M) and for new biochemical ...

Creator: Hans V. Westerhoff

Submitter: Hans V. Westerhoff

DOI: 10.15490/fairdomhub.1.datafile.8095.2

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Metabolic thermodynamics: pertinent reference state and energy potentials

Abstract (Expand)

Chemical potentials (molar Gibbs energies) are usually extrapolated to the remote physical–chemical reference state and then stored. Subsequent use under in vivo conditions requires a similarly … conditions requires a similarly substantial, reverse extrapolation, again with significant potential errors. In order to shrink both extrapolations drastically and thereby enhance both biological meaning and accuracy, we propose a transformation to a more biological reference state: pH = 7, pMg = 3, 99.5% water, with 1 m m each of the additional ‘precursors’ inorganic phosphate, sulfate, ammonium, and bicarbonate, and with twin temperatures 37 and 25 °C, ionic strength 0.15  m and m m as concentration unit. These precursors substitute for reference compounds alien to biology such as H 2 at 1 bar, and solid graphite, sulfur, and phosphorus. The standard chemical potentials are herewith increased by the magnitudes of the chemical potentials of protons, Mg 2+ , water, and the four precursors, each multiplied by the number of corresponding atoms in the molecule. This defines standard ‘metabolic potentials’. We make these potentials findable and accessible as 1360 collated standard chemical potentials for 320 compounds of biochemical interest at the twin metabolic reference states. We do this for 3 reference pH's: We present the metabolic reference state as a convenient anchor , not a universal intracellular milieu. All datasets must continue to report the actual experimental state ( T , pH, pMg, I , osmolarity, concentrations), yet aim at (also) reporting parameter values for this anchor state; we supply algorithms to transform between states. This preserves interoperability across diverse organelles, media and between enzymology and chemical engineering, while facilitating reuse.

Authors: Hans V. Westerhoff, Barbara M. Bakker, Andreas S. Bommarius, Maria Luz Cárdenas, Athel Cornish‐Bowden, Paul Fitzpatrick, Peter J. Halling, Vassily Hatzimanikatis, Carsten Kettner, Yanhua Liu, Andrew G. McDonald, Elad Noor, Jürgen Pleiss, Frank M. Raushel, Johann M. Rohwer, Santiago Schnell, Keith F. Tipton, Ming‐Daw Tsai, Urs von Stockar, Ulrike Wittig, Roland Wohlgemuth, John M. Woodley

Date Published: 5th Mar 2026

Publication Type: Journal Article

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