Issue 5, 2014

Spatiotemporal effects of a bioautocatalytic chemical wave revealed by time-resolved mass spectrometry

Abstract

Mass spectrometry has been implemented as an on-line detection tool to monitor transmission of chemical signals due to natural processes such as diffusion and convection as well as a bienzymatic autocatalytic process. It was found that the enzyme-accelerated chemical wave propagates faster than the chemical wave propelled by other processes. The two enzymes (pyruvate kinase and adenylate kinase), involved in the process, work co-operatively catalysing production of adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and induce formation of a front propagating along a high-aspect-ratio drift cell towards the ion source of an ion trap mass spectrometer. Isotopically labelled 13C-ATP was used as the trigger of the accelerated chemical wave. Using this substrate, one could easily distinguish between the two chemical waves (passive and accelerated) in a single experiment, reducing the bias due to the inherent experimental instabilities. We think that – following further improvements – the process described in this report may find applications in bioengineered systems, in which chemical signals need to be transmitted over macroscopic distances.

Graphical abstract: Spatiotemporal effects of a bioautocatalytic chemical wave revealed by time-resolved mass spectrometry

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Jun 2013
Accepted
30 Oct 2013
First published
14 Nov 2013

RSC Adv., 2014,4, 2103-2108

Spatiotemporal effects of a bioautocatalytic chemical wave revealed by time-resolved mass spectrometry

H. Ting and P. L. Urban, RSC Adv., 2014, 4, 2103 DOI: 10.1039/C3RA42873G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements