Description

• Title:
  The Final Frontier of pH and the Undiscovered Country Beyond
• Creator:
  Bal, Wojciech;
  Kurowska, Ewa;
  Maret, Wolfgang
• Description:
  The comparison of volumes of cells and subcellular structures with the pH values reported for them leads to a conflict with the definition of the pH scale. The pH scale is based on the ionic product of water, Kw = [H+]6[OH2].We used Kw [in a reversed way] to calculate the number of undissociated H2O molecules required by this equilibrium constant to yield at least one of its daughter ions, H+ or OH2 at a given pH. In this way we obtained a formula that relates pH to the minimal volume VpH required to provide a physical meaning to Kw, VpH~10DpH{pKw=2D| 10pKw=2 NA (where NA is Avogadro’s number). For example, at pH 7 (neutral at 25uC) VpH = 16.6 aL. Any deviation from neutral pH results in a larger VpH value. Our results indicate that many subcellular structures, including coated vesicles and lysosomes, are too small to contain free H+ ions at equilibrium, thus the definition of pH based on Kw is no longer valid. Larger subcellular structures, such as mitochondria, apparently contain only a few free H+ ions. These results indicate that pH fails to describe intracellular conditions, and that water appears to be dissociated too weakly to provide free H+ ions as a general source for biochemical reactions. Consequences of this finding are discussed.
• Object availability:
  free access
• Date:
  2012.09.25
• Type:
  Article;
  PeerReviewed
• Language:
  English
• Format:
  application/pdf
• Relation: http://eprints.ibb.waw.pl/480
• Subject:
  QD Chemistry
• Identifier: http://eprints.ibb.waw.pl/480/1/116-journal.pone.0045832.pdf ;
  Bal, Wojciech and Kurowska, Ewa and Maret, Wolfgang (2012) The Final Frontier of pH and the Undiscovered Country Beyond. PloS one . ISSN 1932-6203
• Data provider:
  Repozytorium Instytutu Biochemii i Biofizyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
• Can I use it?:
  seek permission
• Type:
  other