ABSTRACT
To better understand plant responses to elevated temperatures it is essential that the optimal temperature for the plant first be identified. The concept of the thermal kinetic window (TKW) arose from a desire to investigate temperature stresses in plants and the realization of a lack of knowledge about how to identify the optimal temperatures for metabolism. The thermal kinetic window of optimal enzyme function was defined as the temperature range over which the value of
the apparent Km was within 200% of the minimum apparent Km value observed for the enzyme being assayed [2]. The 200% cutoff value was used because previous studies [3,4] had reported that enzymes could function optimally with Km values below 200% of the minimum Km value. The purpose of the thermal kinetic window was to provide a general indicator of the range of temperatures in which the optimal temperature for metabolism was located.
