A method for extracting rate constants from initial rates of stopped-flow kinetic data: application to a physiological electron-transfer reaction

The most commonly used methods for analysis of stopped-flow kinetic data require performing a series of measurements in which one reactant is varied at concentrations significantly greater than the concentration of the other reactant. For enzyme-catalysed reactions this may not be possible, because the dissociation constants for the enzyme-substrate complex are often of the same order of magnitude as the high concentrations of enzyme that must frequently be used in stopped-flow studies. An alternative method of data analysis is presented which allows the determination of microscopic rate constants from initial rates of stopped-flow kinetic data in which substrate is varied in a range of concentrations approximately the same as the enzyme. This method also provides a simple and accurate method for determining k4, the rate of the reverse reaction. This method has been used to describe a physiological electron transfer reaction between a quinoprotein, methylamine dehydrogenase, and a copper protein, amicyanin. At 20 degrees C, the rate of the electron-transfer reaction from methylamine dehydrogenase to amicyanin was 24 s-1, and the dissociation constant for complex-formation was 1.9 microM.