Limiting Factors Affecting Enzymes: Competitive Inhibitors Flashcards
An enzyme’s activity can be reduced or stopped, temporarily, by a reversible inhibitor
There are two types of reversible inhibitors:
Competitive inhibitors have a
similar shape to that of the substrate molecules and therefore compete with the substrate for the active site
Reversible inhibitors can act as
regulators in metabolic pathways
Why do metabolic reactions have to be tightly controlled
Metabolic reactions must be very tightly controlled and balanced, so that no single enzyme can ‘run wild’ and continuously and uncontrollably generate more and more of a particular product
For competitive inhibitors, countering the increase in inhibitor concentration by increasing the ………….. can increase the rate of reaction once more
and why is this
substrate concentration
more substrate molecules mean they are more likely to collide with enzymes and form enzyme-substrate complexes)
While a competitive inhibitor will lower the initial rate of reaction (by occupying some of the available active sites), eventually the same amount of
product will be produced as would have been produced without the competitive inhibitor (the maximal rate is not affected)