Contraction constants of enzyme-substrate reactions

Abstract

Changes of volume accompanying enzyme hydrolysis have been utilised by Sreenivasaya and Sastry to follow the kinetics of enzyme action by means of the dilatometer. The procedure employed in the above investigation does not bring into consideration the substantial volume change occurring in the initial stages of the reaction, and therefore gives no idea of the total contraction resulting from the complete hydrolysis of the substrates. The total contraction given by an enzyme-substrate system depends only on the absolute amount of the substrat in the reaction mixture, and is proportional to it.