ATP Synthesis and Biosensing Coupled to the Electroenzymatic Activity of a Hydrogenase on an Electrode/Biomimetic Membrane Interface

This article belongs to the Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Sensor Science (I3S 2017).Cells generate energy by coupling a proton gradient across a phospholipid bilayer membrane with the activity of a cross-membrane ATP synthase enzyme. In an effort to mimic this process in an artificial environment, we show that ATP can be efficiently produced starting from molecular hydrogen as a fuel. The proton concentration in an electrode/phospholipid bilayer interface can be controlled and monitorised electrochemically by immobilizing the membrane-bound [NiFeSe]- hydrogenase from Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough [1]. The electro-enzymatic oxidation of H2 generated a proton gradient across the supported biomimetic membrane that can be coupled to the in vitro synthesis of ATP by reconstituting ATP-synthase from E. coli on the biomimetic system [2]. Such a system is also suitable for developing an electrochemical biosensor of ATP.This research was funded by the Spanish MINECO (Project CTQ2012-32448 and CTQ2015-71290-R) and by the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (project PTDC/BBB- EP/0934/2012 and UID/Multi/04551/2013). I.L.-M acknowledges the European Research Council (ERC), grant no. ERC-StG-2013-338133 titled “MITOCHON” and RyC-2013-12609 from the Spanish MINECO.Peer reviewe