Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Direct Detection of the Acetate-forming Activity of the Enzyme Acetate Kinase
Published on: December 19, 2011
Enolpyruvate: chemical determination as a pyruvate kinase intermediate
S H Seeholzer1, A Jaworowski, I A Rose
1Institute for Cancer Research, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19111.
Abstract:
Despite many studies suggesting the role of enolpyruvate as a bound intermediate in the pyruvate kinase reaction, direct evidence for it has been lacking. By use of a combination of chemical trapping and isolation of a derivative, significant amounts of enzyme-bound enolpyruvate have now been demonstrated. The method distinguishes enolpyruvate. It is based on reaction of bromine with enolpyruvate in acid, derivatization of formed bromopyruvate with thionitrobenzoate, and resolution by reversed-phase HPLC of the thioether derivative. As little as 10 pmol of the thioether derivative could be quantitated reliably. With this method, the internal equilibria, including the E.ATP.enolpyruvate intermediate, have been determined. Enzyme-enolpyruvate concentration was shown to be pH-dependent. Phosphoenolpyruvate also reacts with bromine to form bromopyruvate. To quantitate enolpyruvate specifically in a background of phosphoenolpyruvate, advantage was taken of phosphoenolpyruvate's much greater stability in acid. When bromide/was added 10 min after the acid quench, ketonization of enolpyruvate was complete, and only phosphoenolpyruvate was measured. Enolpyruvate is thus determined by difference between the bromopyruvate measured with and without delayed bromine addition.
Related Concept Videos
What is Glycolysis?
Cells make energy by breaking down macromolecules. Cellular respiration is the biochemical process that converts "food energy" (from the chemical bonds of macromolecules) into chemical energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The first step of this tightly regulated and intricate process is glycolysis. The word glycolysis originates from the Latin glyco (sugar) and lysis (breakdown). Glycolysis serves two main intracellular functions: generating ATP and generating...
Enzyme Kinetics
Scientists typically study enzyme kinetics with a fixed amount of enzyme in the controlled environment of a test tube. When more reactant, or substrate, is...
Glycolysis: Preparatory Phase
Fates of Pyruvate
In aerobic organisms, pyruvate is metabolized via the citric acid cycle to produce reduced coenzymes NADH and FADH2. These coenzymes are then oxidized in the electron transport chain to produce ATP and, in the process, regenerate the NAD+ and FAD. As seen in some cell types and organisms, fermentation...
Introduction to Enzyme Kinetics
The experimenter can then plot the initial reaction rate or velocity (Vo) of a given trial against the substrate concentration ([S]) to obtain a graph of the reaction properties. For many enzymatic reactions involving a...
Regioselective Formation of Enolates

