Physico-chemical properties of organic compounds and the energetics of metabolism

The existing reference system of thermodynamic potentials of substance formation does not outline some important properties inherent to energy transformation and utilization in the cell metabolism. To elicit these properties, a new reference system is suggested. On its basis, a generalized unit of chemical substance reductance, called redoxon, has been developed. The molecules of more reduced substances contain a higher number of redoxons. Energy value of one redoxon is nearly constant in organic compounds but strongly varying in inorganic ones. The stoichiometric and thermodynamic balances of biochemical reactions in the new reference system have been obtained. The suggested approach has been shown to be an adequate tool for the analysis of the mass-energy balance of metabolic processes including heterotrophic and autotrophic growth of intact cells and organisms.