Efficiency function for comparing catalytic competence

CECCARELLI, E. A.; CARRILLO, N; ROVERI, O. A

TRENDS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY

Elsevier Science Publishers

Lugar: Londres, Reino Unido; Año: 2008 vol. 26 p. 117 - 118

0167-7799

The article by Eisenthal et al. in the June issue of Trends in Biotechnology [1] warns on the use and misuse of kcat/KM (the ‘specificity constant’ [2]) for evaluating the performance of enzymes. We endorse these concepts, and along the same lines we propose an alternative formulation that enables estimation of true enzyme-catalyzed reaction efficiencies with practical applications. Our approach overcomes many of the pitfalls of using kcat/KM values and is powerful in predicting the efficiency of enzyme variants in reactors or when expressed in transgenic organisms.The formulation is based on the theory of perfect catalysts of Albery and Knowles [3] as derived for steady-state conditions [4].