What is microbial bioenergetics?

The application of thermodynamics to quantitatively describe energy production and transformation in microbes.

∆G

cata

bolis

m

∆Ggrowth{ {{e-

µ

ATP

electron donor

(ED)EDox

electron acceptor (EA)

EAred

∆Gmaintenance

Energy productionvs. consumption

The Gibbs energy of catabolism gained from fermentation or respiration (e.g., denitrification) is used for growth and maintenance.

=+

X-

-%

AC+/ -

Researchand

Applications

∆Gmet= ?

∆G main= ?

∆Gcat= = ?

∆Ggrowth = ?

Fie

ld

T

heor

y Dev

elopment Modeling Laboratory

Y = ?

CH4

acetate

time

conc

entr

atio

n

d CH4

dtd acetate

dt

d biomassdt

biomass

Heat + ∆S

Apply fundamentalthermodynamicprinciples to describe the bio-chemical processes driving both growthand non-growth in micro-organisms.

Bioenergetics- informed models explicitly account for energy and microbial growth topredict rates. Range in complexity from black box models to genome-informed models.

d CH4

dt d CO2

dt

d CO2

dtd CH4

dt Examine the impactof energy on a process (e.g., waste-water treatment).

Typically includes batch, chemostat, and soil columns.

Calorimetry may beused to quantify the heats of reaction.

Bioenergetics is used combined withtransport, geo-chemical, and microbiological datato predict biogeo-chemical rates.

For example, the rate of methaneproduction.

UWaterloo Microbial Bioenergetics Workshop, July 2018, Christina Smeaton