Association-Dissociation Equilibria of Enzymes

Association-Dissociation Equilibria of Enzymes A. Protein Volumes 

At ordinary pressure all the ionizable groups have their specific pK values and are present in ionized states according to these values. When pressure increases, we can expect all pK values to change, whereby the overall ionized state of the protein is changed. The whole hydration sheet may also be changed around the protein and conformational rearrangements may occur. This fact indicates that the volume of a protein may be very pressure-dependent. 

A recent report by Gekko and Noguchi (1979) confirmed that of 14 globular proteins studied, all showed positive compressibilities. The results revealed that a large negative compression of the void compensates a positive compression due to the hydration of the proteins, resulting in a small positive value for /3S. 

Pressure may cause several changes in enzymes, as well as some changes which are not directly associated with the catalytic process. These changes may include conformational changes and subunit dissociation-association processes. Pressures above 4000 bar may induce conformational changes to such an extent that the enzyme in effect becomes irreversibly denatured. These are dealt with in the next section. In this section we will deal with lower pressures and reversible processes, namely, interactions between subunits in quaternary structures. For most multimeric enzymes, the maintenance of 

In a pressure study involving a multimeric enzyme, it will in general not be possible to decide how much of the effect is due to direct influence of pressure on the catalytic process and how much of it is due to indirect influence through subunit dissociation and accompanying deactivation. Generally, a self-association reaction may be expressed in either of two equivalent forms  

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