Measurement of Net Rate Constants from Enzyme Progress Curves without Curve Fitting

A method is described whereby net rate constants can be directly inferred from the progress curves of enzyme intermediates without the need for model specification, numerical analysis, curve fitting, or the steady-state approximation. Specifically, if an enzyme intermediate in an ultimately irreversible serial subsequence is perturbed from and returns back to its equilibrium state as the substrate is consumed, then its net rate constant is given by the ratio of the total substrate consumed and the area under the progress curve for the enzyme intermediate. A rigorous analysis demonstrates this result to hold independent of the complete enzymatic reaction in which the subsequence is embedded, making it broadly applicable to a very wide range of kinetic mechanisms, including those complicated by inhibition. As a theoretical consequence, it is shown that traditionally steady-state parameters such as k_cat, k_cat/K_M, and net rate constants can be expressed as limiting ratios of averages without requiring the steady-state hypothesis. Finally, a mock data set is generated for a system of contemporary interest that can serve as both an example of how the methodology would be used in practice and a proof of concept.