Dehydrogenases kinetic studies with alternative substrates

Comparisons of the kinetic coefficients in Eq. (1) obtained from initial rate measurements with alternative substrates have given a considerable amount of information about reaction pathways as well as indications of the molecular basis of specificity (60). This approach, much used for proteolytic enzymes, has been exploited particularly with the alcohol dehydrogenases, which catalyze the oxidation of a variety of primary and secondary alcohols (61). While several other dehydrogenases have been studied in this way, most of the results have been reported only as apparent maximum rates and apparent Km values for the alternative substrate, which restricts the amount of information that can be derived. 

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