Measurement of enzyme reaction rates using advanced pH control system: application of repetitive PF system

The aim of this article is to develop the on-line measurement system of enzyme reaction rates, using an advanced pH controller, which is called a repetitive PF(Programmed Controller/Feedback Compensator) System. In the esterolysis reaction of the N-acetyltyrosine ethyl ester by alpha-chymotrypsin, the enzyme reaction rate could be calculated from the amount of base required for keeping the pH constant. The proposed controller has a learning mechanism in which the knowledge is obtained from the former results of the repetition, and pH was controlled much more successfully by the proposed repetitive PF System than by the conventional on-off controller, PI controller, and the adaptive controller. The enzyme reaction rate could be evaluated each time as accurately as possible based on the result of the controlled batch reaction. Using Lineweaver-Burk plots of the estimated reaction rates, kinetic parameters, such as the enzyme activity and Michaelis-Menten constant, could be estimated more accurately and from fewer experiments by the repetitive PF system than by initial reaction rates using on-off pH-stat.