Equilibrium constants biochemical thermodynamics

Whenever reporting equilibrium constants, detailed information concerning the reaction conditions should always be indicated. Alberty has also presented an important review of biochemical thermodynamics in which he discusses the apparent equilibrium constant for biochemical reactions (K ) in terms of sums of reactant species. 

See Activity Coefficients Additivity Principle Biochemical Thermodynamics Chemical Potential Equilibrium Constants Hess s Law Innate Thermodynamic Quantities Molecular Crowding Thermodynamics, Laws of Thermodynamic Cycle Thermodynamic Equations of State... 

ACTIVITY COEEEICIENTS ADDITIVITY PRINCIPLE BIOCHEMICAL THERMODYNAMICS CHEMICAL POTENTIAL EQUILIBRIUM CONSTANTS HESS S LAW... 

This introductory chapter describes the thermodynamics of biochemical reactions in terms of equilibrium constants and apparent equilibrium constants and avoids references to other thermodynamic properties, which are introduced later. 

The equations and calculations described in this chapter are very useful, but so far we have not discussed thermodynamic properties other than equilibrium constants. The other properties introduced in the next three chapters provide a better understanding of the energetics and equilibria of reactions. We will consider the basic structure of thermodynamics in Chapter 2 and then to apply these ideas to chemical reactions in Chapter 3 and biochemical reactions in Chapter 4. 

This field owes a tremendous debt to the experimentalists who have measured apparent equilibrium constants and heats of enzyme-catalyzed reactions and to those who have made previous thermodynamic tables that contain information needed in biochemical thermodynamics. 

All life processes are the result of enzyme activity. In fact, life itself, whether plant or animal, involves a complex network of enzymatic reactions. An enzyme is a protein that is synthesized in a living cell. It catalyzes a thermodynamically possible reaction so that the rate of the reaction is compatible with the numerous biochemical processes essential for the growth and maintenance of a cell. The synthesis of an enzyme thus is under tight metabolic regulations and controls that can be genetically or environmentally manipulated sometimes to cause the overproduction of an enzyme by the cell. An enzyme, like chemical catalysts, in no way modifies the equilibrium constant or the free energy change of a reaction. 

Chapters 3-5 have described the calculation of various transformed thermodynamic properties of biochemical reactants and reactions from standard thermodynamic properties of species, but they have not discussed how these species properties were determined. Of course, some species properties came directly out of the National Bureau of Standard Tables (1) and CODATA Tables (2). One way to calculate standard thermodynamic properties of species not in the tables of chemical thermodynamic properties is to express the apparent equilibrium constant K in terms of the equilibrium constant K of a reference chemical reaction, that is a reference reaction written in terms of species, and binding polynomials of reactants, as described in Chapter 2. In order to do this the piiTs of the reactants in the pH range of interest must be known, and if metal ions are bound, the dissociation constants of the metal ion complexes must also be known. For the hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate to adenosine diphosphate, the apparent equilibrium constant is given by... 

When the pH is specified, each biochemical half reaction makes an independent contribution to the apparent equilibrium constant K for the reaction written in terms of reactants rather than species. The studies of electochemical cells have played an important role in the development of biochemical thermodynamics, as indicated by the outstanding studies by W. Mansfield Clarke (1). The main source of tables of ° values for biochemical half reactions has been those of Segel (2). Although standard apparent reduction potentials ° can be measured for some half reactions of biochemical interest, their direct determination is usually not feasible because of the lack of reversibility of the electrode reactions. However, standard apparent reduction potentials can be calculated from for oxidoreductase reactions. Goldberg and coworkers (3) have compiled and evaluated the experimental determinations of apparent equilibrium constants and standard transformed enthalpies of oxidoreductase reactions, and their tables have made it possible to calculate ° values for about 60 half reactions as functions of pH and ionic strength at 298.15 K (4-8). 

The calculation of Af G° and Af H° of species from experimental data on apparent equilibrium constants and transformed enthalpies of reaction is described in R. A. Alberty, Thermodynamics of Biochemical Reactions, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ (2003) and a number of places in the literature. That is not discussed here because this package is oriented toward the derivation of mathematical functions to calculate thermodynamic properties at specified T, pH, and ionic strength. There are two types of biochemical reactants in the database ... 

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