What heat is telling us about microbial conversions in nature and technology: from chip- to megacalorimetry.
The exploitation of microorganisms in natural or technological systems calls for monitoring tools that reflect their metabolic activity in real time and, if necessary, are flexible enough for field application. The Gibbs energy dissipation of assimilated substrates or photons often in the form of heat is a general feature of life processes and thus, in principle, available to monitor and control microbial dynamics. Furthermore, the combination of measured heat fluxes with material fluxes allows the application of Hess' law to either prove expected growth stoichiometries and kinetics or identify and estimate unexpected side reactions. The combination of calorimetry with respirometry is theoretically suited for the quantification of the degree of coupling between catabolic and anabolic reactions. New calorimeter developments overcome the weaknesses of conventional devices, which hitherto limited the full exploitation of this powerful analytical tool. Calorimetric systems can be integrated easily into natural and technological systems of interest. They are potentially suited for high-throughput measurements and are robust enough for field deployment. This review explains what information calorimetric analyses provide; it introduces newly emerging calorimetric techniques and it exemplifies the application of calorimetry in different fields of microbial research.
UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Environmental Microbiology, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany. Thomas.maskow@ufz.de
Thomas
T
Maskow
Richard
R
Kemp
Friederike
F
Buchholz
Torsten
T
Schubert
Baerbel
B
Kiesel
Hauke
H
Harms
D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D002151:Calorimetry / Q000379:methods*; D004783:Environmental Microbiology
Biotechnol Bioeng. 1999 Jul 5;64(1):74-81
10397841
Biosens Bioelectron. 1997;12(4):287-99
9178514
Pharm Res. 1998 Jun;15(6):944-9
9647363
J Microbiol Methods. 2008 Aug;74(2-3):74-81
18502524
Nature. 1973 Feb 16;241(5390):472-3
4574597
Biotechnol Bioeng. 2006 Feb 20;93(3):541-52
16245347
Biotechnol Bioeng. 2002 Oct 20;80(2):125-38
12209768
J Biotechnol. 2006 Feb 24;121(4):517-33
16185782
Water Res. 2002 Mar;36(5):1297-305
11902784
Biotechnol Bioeng. 1993 Aug 5;42(4):509-19
18613056
J Biotechnol. 2007 May 31;130(1):24-31
17397956
J Biotechnol. 2006 Apr 20;122(4):431-42
16309773
Extremophiles. 2004 Apr;8(2):133-41
15064980
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Jun 29;101(26):9517-22
15210951
Trends Plant Sci. 2002 Apr;7(4):183-5
11950615
Biotechnol Bioeng. 2001 Oct 20;75(2):170-80
11536139
Biosens Bioelectron. 1997;12(6):457-66
9253152
Am J Clin Nutr. 1983 Dec;38(6):989-98
6650455
Biochim Biophys Acta. 1990 Apr 26;1016(3):328-32
2184896
Biochim Biophys Acta. 2001 Jul 2;1527(1-2):4-10
11420137
J Virol Methods. 2003 Sep;112(1-2):137-43
12951222
J Biotechnol. 2000 Feb 17;77(2-3):247-53
10682283
Biotechnol Bioeng. 1996 Sep 20;51(6):645-58
18629831
Anal Chem. 2002 May 1;74(9):2190-7
12033326
Biotechnol Bioeng. 1989 Jun 5;34(1):86-101
18588055
Biochim Biophys Acta. 1999 Aug 4;1412(3):191-211
10482783
Trends Plant Sci. 2004 Jul;9(7):349-57
15231280
Ecotoxicology. 2007 Oct;16(7):503-9
17611794
Microb Biotechnol. 2008 Mar;1(2):126-36
21261830
Biotechnol Bioeng. 2004 Mar 5;85(5):547-52
14760695