A program for analyzing enzyme rate data obtained from a microplate reader

Abstract

A computer program (microplate analysis [MPA] program) is described that allows manipulation of kinetic data obtained from a microplate reader. It is particularly useful for obtaining enzyme velocities from microplate data. Data can be displayed either as an 8 x 12 grid which shows all microplate wells at low resolution or as single enzyme progress curves which show the reaction time course in greater detail and allow data manipulation (single curve mode). In the single curve mode, the X-axis of the progress curves can be displayed either as discrete time points numbered from the first to the last or as real time in seconds. The program can calculate the maximum, minimum or initial reaction rate by either linear or robust regression. In the single curve mode, the user can control the range of data points included in the regression analysis and the number of data points over which the rate is averaged. In this way, the maximum (or minimum) rate within a specific range of data can be determined. The major advantage of the MPA program is that the range settings are specific to each well. This gives the user complete control over the presentation and calculation of the kinetic data. The MPA program requires an AS-CII file containing data blocks of 96 sequential absorbance readings for each time point and the time interval between successive absorbance readings.