Theoretical study of the effect of enzyme-enzyme interactions on steady-state enzyme kinetics.

Abstract

Equilibrium statistical mechanics was much concerned with problems involving intermolecular interactions, either in lattices or in pure fluids or solutions. The possibility of enzyme-enzyme interactions suggested that the same problems might be studied profitably at steady state as well as at equilibrium. In the systems considered, each of the identical enzyme molecules of the system underwent steady-state stochastic cycling among states i = 1, . . . , n. However, the molecules did not cycle independently. Two neighboring molecules, in states i and j, interact with a free energy wij (a function of the distance r in the solution case). The instantaneous transition probabilities between states for a given molecule depended on the instantaneous interactions between the molecule in question and its neighbors. The primary question of interest was how the enzyme flux was influenced by the interactions. The general problem was outlined and some simple special cases were treated.