Sequencing turnover

Enzymes are excellent catalysts for two reasons great specificity and high turnover rates. With but few exceptions, all reac tions in biological systems are catalyzed by enzymes, and each enzyme usually catalyzes only one reaction. For most of the important enzymes and other proteins, the amino-acid sequences and three-dimensional structures have been determined. When the molecular struc ture of an enzyme is known, a precise molecular weight could be used to state concentration in molar units. However, the amount is usually expressed in terms of catalytic activity because some of the enzyme may be denatured or otherwise inactive. An international unit (lU) of an enzyme is defined as the amount capable of producing one micromole of its reaction product in one minute under its optimal (or some defined) reaction conditions. Specific activity, the activity per unit mass, is an index of enzyme purity. 

ASON are sequences of usually 17-30 bases of single-stranded DNA that hybridize to specific genes or their mRNA products by Watson-Crick base pairing and disrupt their function. In the case of AS-ODN (antisense oligodeoxyribonucleotides) cellular RNAseH is able to bind to the DNA-RNA duplex and hydrolyze the RNA, resulting in increased transcript turnover. Modifications to the deoxy moiety at the 2 -sugar position prohibits RNAse H action. 

Unlike other enzymes that we have discussed, the completion of a catalytic cycle of primer extension does not result in release of the product (TP(n+1)) and recovery of the free enzyme. Instead, the product remains bound to the enzyme, in the form of a new template-primer complex, and this acts as a new substrate for continued primer extension. Catalysis continues in this way until the entire template sequence has been complemented. The overall rate of reaction is limited by the chemical steps composing cat these include the chemical step of phosphodiester bond formation and requisite conformational changes in the enzyme structure. Hence there are several potential mechanisms for inhibiting the reaction of HIV RT. Competitive inhibitors could be prepared that would block binding of either the dNTPs or the TP. Alternatively, noncompetitive compounds could be prepared that function to block the chemistry of bond formation, that block the required enzyme conformational transition(s) of turnover, or that alter the reaction pathway in a manner that alters the rate-limiting step of turnover. 

Selective cleavage of peptides and proteins is an important procedure in biochemistry and molecular biology. The half-life for the uncatalyzed hydrolysis of amide bonds is 350 500 years at room temperature and pH 4 8. Clearly, efficient methods of cleavage are needed. Despite their great catalytic power and selectivity to sequence, proteinases have some disadvantages. Peptides 420,423,424,426 an(j proteins428 429 can be hydrolytically cleaved near histidine and methionine residues with several palladium(II) aqua complexes, often with catalytic turnover. 

Concentrations of hydroxide beyond those needed for catalyst activation display approximately 0.5 order dependence with regard to turnover frequency. Since these results are for two catalysts performing different functions, it would appear that they correspond to a separate, noncatalytic step in the reaction sequence. 

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