A PROGRAM FOR ANALYZING ENZYME RATE DATA OBTAINED FROM A MICROPLATE READER

A computer program (microplate analysis [MPA] program) is described th at allows manipulation of kinetic data obtained from a microplate read er. It is particularly useful for obtaining enzyme velocities from mic roplate data. Data can be displayed either as an 8 x 12 grid which sho ws all microplate wells at low resolution or as single enzyme progress curves which show the reaction time course in greater detail and allo w data manipulation (single curve mode). In the single curve mode, the X-axis of the progress curves can be displayed either as discrete tim e points numbered from the first to the last or as real time in second s. 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 regressi on analysis and the number of data points over which the rate is avera ged. In this way, the maximum (or minimum) rate within a specific rang e 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 use r complete control over the presentation and calculation of the kineti c 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.