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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2003, p. 2340-2348, Vol. 69, No. 4
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.4.2340-2348.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

A New Rate Law Describing Microbial Respiration

Qusheng Jin and Craig M. Bethke*

Department of Geology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801-2919

Received 27 September 2002/ Accepted 16 January 2003

The rate of microbial respiration can be described by a rate law that gives the respiration rate as the product of a rate constant, biomass concentration, and three terms: one describing the kinetics of the electron-donating reaction, one for the kinetics of the electron-accepting reaction, and a thermodynamic term accounting for the energy available in the microbe's environment. The rate law, derived on the basis of chemiosmotic theory and nonlinear thermodynamics, is unique in that it accounts for both forward and reverse fluxes through the electron transport chain. Our analysis demonstrates how a microbe's respiration rate depends on the thermodynamic driving force, i.e., the net difference between the energy available from the environment and energy conserved as ATP. The rate laws commonly applied in microbiology, such as the Monod equation, are specific simplifications of the general law presented. The new rate law is significant because it affords the possibility of extrapolating in a rigorous manner from laboratory experiment to a broad range of natural conditions, including microbial growth where only limited energy is available. The rate law also provides a new explanation of threshold phenomena, which may reflect a thermodynamic equilibrium where the energy released by electron transfer balances that conserved by ADP phosphorylation.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Geology, University of Illinois, 1301 W. Green St., 245 Natural History Building, Urbana, IL 61801-2919. Phone: (217) 333-3369. Fax: (217) 244-4996. Email: bethke{at}uiuc.edu.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2003, p. 2340-2348, Vol. 69, No. 4
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.4.2340-2348.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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