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minjai0322 minjai0322
wrote...
13 years ago
Many compounds are used in multiple enzyme reactions in the cell as a co-substrate. For example ATP and NADH. In a way those enzymes which need those substrates are competing for the shared substrate. Explain how cells may have developed a strategy to control the distribution of those shared resource using the different Km to the substrate in different enzymes.
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wrote...
Educator
13 years ago
The Michaelis constant (Km) is a means of characterising an enzyme's affinity for a substrate. The Km in an enzymatic reaction is the substrate concentration at which the reaction rate is half its maximum speed.
Thus, a low Km value means that the enzyme has a high affinity for the substrate (as a "little" substrate is enough to run the reaction at half its max speed). This is only true for reactions where substrate is limiting and the enzyme is NOT allosteric. That being said, even though a chemical like ATP and NADH may be limiting, those enzymes that have a higher affinity for them will get them more than those that do not.
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