Enzyme Kinetics Flashcards
What is enzyme kinetics ?
The study of the rates of enzyme catalysed reactions
What is measured in enzyme kinetics ?
The reaction rate is measured and the effects of varying the conditions of the reactions investigated
What does studying enzyme kinetics reveal ?
- The catalytic mechanism of an enzyme
- The enzymes role in metabolism
- How the enzyme activity is controlled
- How a drug or poison might inhibit the enzyme
What type of relationship is there between the rate of an enzyme catalysed reaction and the concentration of substrate at a fixed concentration of enzyme ?
Hyperbolic relationship
At low substrate concentrations what happens to the rate of reaction with increasing substrate concentration ?
Steep increase
What is the rate at which product can be formed limited by ?
The concentration of the substrate available
What is the initial rate of the enzyme-catalysed reaction to the concentration of substrate ?
Directly proportional
What is a first order reaction ?
The steep increase at the beginning of the curve
What happens to the enzyme as the concentration of the substrate increases ?
The enzyme becomes saturated with substrate
What happens as soon as the catalytic site is empty ?
More substrate is available to bind and undergo reaction
What happens at the high concentrations of substrate while the substrate continues to increase ?
Decreased enzyme response
When is the maximum velocity achieved ?
At substrate saturation
What is a zero order reaction ?
Proceeds at a constant rate
At maximum velocity, what does the rate of formation of the product depend on ?
The activity of the enzyme itself. Adding more substrate will not affect the rate of reaction to any significant effect
What is the hyperbolic relationship between substrate concentration and initial velocity also known as ?
Michaelis Menten equation
What is the michaelis constant ?
Km