A novel method for analyzing enzyme kinetic systems

摘要

The rate law governing the kinetics of a single enzyme mediated reaction may be derived relatively easily by hand, given knowledge of the enzyme's mechanism. Such rate lows are typically non-linear in the concentrations of metabolites involved. When a number of enzymes interact, the composite rate law for the complete system involves the simultaneous solution of the individual enzyme rate laws. We show how computer algebra can be used to solve this previously intractable problem, using the method of Gröbner Bases. We present an experimental example where kinetic parameters for individual enzymes are measured by making observations of a multi-enzyme system, and fitting these data to the rate law for the complete system.