PH wave-front propagation in the urea-urease reaction

Magdalena M. Wrobel; Tamás Bánsági; Stephen K. Scott; Annette F. Taylor; Chris O. Bounds; Arturo Carranzo; John A. Pojman

doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2012.06.020

PH wave-front propagation in the urea-urease reaction

Magdalena M. Wrobel, Tamás Bánsági, Stephen K. Scott, Annette F. Taylor, Chris O. Bounds, Arturo Carranzo, John A. Pojman

Department of Chemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

36 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

The urease-catalyzed hydrolysis of urea displays feedback that results in a switch from acid (pH ∼3) to base (pH ∼9) after a controllable period of time (from 10 to >5000 s). Here we show that the spatially distributed reaction can support pH wave fronts propagating with a speed of the order of 0.1-1 mm min^-1. The experimental results were reproduced qualitatively in reaction-diffusion simulations including a Michaelis-Menten expression for the urease reaction with a bell-shaped rate-pH dependence. However, this model fails to predict that at lower enzyme concentrations, the unstirred reaction does not always support fronts when the well-stirred reaction still rapidly switches to high pH.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	610-615
Number of pages	6
Journal	Biophysical Journal
Volume	103
Issue number	3
Early online date	7 Aug 2012
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2012.06.020
Publication status	Published - 8 Aug 2012

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Biophysics

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10.1016/j.bpj.2012.06.020

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title = "PH wave-front propagation in the urea-urease reaction",

abstract = "The urease-catalyzed hydrolysis of urea displays feedback that results in a switch from acid (pH ∼3) to base (pH ∼9) after a controllable period of time (from 10 to >5000 s). Here we show that the spatially distributed reaction can support pH wave fronts propagating with a speed of the order of 0.1-1 mm min-1. The experimental results were reproduced qualitatively in reaction-diffusion simulations including a Michaelis-Menten expression for the urease reaction with a bell-shaped rate-pH dependence. However, this model fails to predict that at lower enzyme concentrations, the unstirred reaction does not always support fronts when the well-stirred reaction still rapidly switches to high pH.",

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AU - Wrobel, Magdalena M.

AU - Bánsági, Tamás

AU - Scott, Stephen K.

AU - Taylor, Annette F.

AU - Bounds, Chris O.

AU - Carranzo, Arturo

AU - Pojman, John A.

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AB - The urease-catalyzed hydrolysis of urea displays feedback that results in a switch from acid (pH ∼3) to base (pH ∼9) after a controllable period of time (from 10 to >5000 s). Here we show that the spatially distributed reaction can support pH wave fronts propagating with a speed of the order of 0.1-1 mm min-1. The experimental results were reproduced qualitatively in reaction-diffusion simulations including a Michaelis-Menten expression for the urease reaction with a bell-shaped rate-pH dependence. However, this model fails to predict that at lower enzyme concentrations, the unstirred reaction does not always support fronts when the well-stirred reaction still rapidly switches to high pH.

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PH wave-front propagation in the urea-urease reaction

Abstract

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