Microcalorimetry is a sensitive method for studying the effect of nucleotide mutation on promoter activity

Microcalorimetric method was successfully used to study the effect of nucleotide mutations on promoter activity and identify the important nucleotide necessary for the promoter function in Escherichia coli. The thermokinetic parameters, such as k, I and IC(50), were calculated from the metabolic power-time curves obtained by microcalorimetric measurement using the TAM air Isothermal Microcalorimeter (manufactured by Thermometric AB company of Sweden). Analysis of these data revealed that different nucleotide mutations in -10 box sequence of RM07 fragment had different effect on the promoter activity. Our research also suggest that the microcalorimetric method is a very sensitive and easily performed method for investigation of promoter mutation.