Hyphenation

high-resolution terminology - matching measurements at high-resolution

Hyphenation

Description

Hyphenation is used to connect two words (compound words) or two parts of a word to clarify the meaning of a sentence. The same two words may be hyphenated or not depending on context. Hyphenation may present a problem when searching for a term such as 'Steady state'. It is helpful to write 'steady-state measurement', to clarify that the measurement is performed at steady state, rather than implying that a state measurement is steady. But this does not imply that hyphenation is applied to the 'measurement performed at steady state'. Thus, the key word is 'steady state'. Compound adjectives should be hyphenated (steady-state measurement), but if the compound adjective follows the term (measurement at steady state), hyphenation does not add any information and should be avoided. Find more examples and guidelines in the grammarly blog on Hyphen and in apastyle.apa.org.

Communicated by Gnaiger Erich (2020-06-02) last update 2023-01-23

Examples on respiratory states and rates

Changes from MitoFIT preprint Gnaiger 2019 MitoFit Preprint Arch to BEC 2020.1 and extension in Gnaiger 2020 BEC MitoPathways

• 'State of coupling control' and 'Coupling state', but Coupling-control state (NOT 'Coupling control state' - it is not 'coupling of a control state')
• Coupling-control ratio, Coupling-control state; but: P/E control ratio (if the name contains a fraction such as P/E or difference such as P-L, then no hyphen follows these symbols, to avoid confusion between the minus sign and the hyphen).
• Coupling-control protocol
• Uncoupling-control ratio; ROUTINE-control ratio
• LEAK respiration (NOT LEAK-respiratory state); LEAK rate (NOT LEAK-rate; but: LEAK-rate dependent flux control efficiency)
• OXPHOS capacity, but: OXPHOS-coupling efficiency
• Phosphorylation pathway, but: Phosphorylation-pathway capacity
• Electron transfer pathway and ET state, but: Electron-transfer-pathway state, ET-pathway state, E-L coupling efficiency
• ET capacity, but: 'ET- or OXPHOS capacity'
• ET-excess capacity, but: E-P excess ET capacity
• ROX state, but: ROX-linked oxygen consumption; Rox-corrected LEAK respiration

• NADH pathway, but: NS-linked respiration; special cases: N-pathway, NS-pathway
• Succinate pathway, but: Succinate-linked pathway; special case: S-pathway

Some less clear examples

• Pathway-control state: 'Pathway control state' would be simpler and the meaning is clear, but in line with Coupling-control state it makes sense to use similarly the hyphen in 'Pathway-control state'.
• OXPHOS-control ratio, but: Respiratory control ratio, Respiratory acceptor control ratio
• Flux control ratio and Flux control efficiency: there is no need to use a hyphen.
• Electron-transfer-pathway state - and should 'ET-pathway competent states' then be ET-pathway-competent states'?
• N-junction, Q-junction, Convergent ET-junctions (but: ET pathway)
• NS-pathway, PM-pathway; but: 'pyruvate-malate pathway' (NOT pyruvate&malate pathway); pyruvate-glutamate-malate substrate combination

Re-evaluation is required

• PM-pathway control state, GM-pathway control state, Glutamate-anaplerotic pathway control state, etc.
• NADH electron transfer-pathway state

MitoPedia concepts: Respiratory state, Respiratory control ratio 

MitoPedia topics: BEC