Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 9, 2026

Single Liposome Measurements for the Study of Proton-Pumping Membrane Enzymes Using Electrochemistry and Fluorescent Microscopy
Published on: February 21, 2019
Exploration of the spontaneous fluctuating activity of single enzyme molecules
Anne Schwabe1, Timo R Maarleveld, Frank J Bruggeman
1Systems Bioinformatics, Amsterdam Institute for Molecules, Medicines and Systems, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. a.schwabe@vu.nl
Abstract:
Single enzyme molecules display inevitable, stochastic fluctuations in their catalytic activity. In metabolism, for instance, the stochastic activity of individual enzymes is averaged out due to their high copy numbers per single cell. However, many processes inside cells rely on single enzyme activity, such as transcription, replication, translation, and histone modifications. Here we introduce the main theoretical concepts of stochastic single-enzyme activity starting from the Michaelis-Menten enzyme mechanism. Next, we discuss stochasticity of multi-substrate enzymes, of enzymes and receptors with multiple conformational states and finally, how fluctuations in receptor activity arise from fluctuations in signal concentration. This paper aims to introduce the exciting field of single-molecule enzyme kinetics and stochasticity to a wider audience of biochemists and systems biologists.
Related Concept Videos
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...
Protein Dynamics in Living Cells
Fluorescent recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) is a fluorescent-protein-based detection technique used to quantify protein movement rates within the cell. This method exposes a small portion of the cell to an intense laser beam. The laser beam causes permanent photobleaching of the fluorophore-tagged proteins in the exposed region. As the bleached...
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...
Fast Reactions
Introduction to Mechanisms of Enzyme Catalysis
Introduction to Mechanisms of Enzyme Catalysis

