Michaelis Menten Equation

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Theory

Michaelisâ€“Menten kinetics is one of the best-known models of enzyme kinetics. The model serves to explain how an enzyme can cause kinetic rate enhancement of a reaction and explains how reaction rates depends on the concentration of enzyme and substrate.The general reaction scheme of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction is as follows:

$E + S \overset{k_{1}}{â†’} ES \overset{k_{2}}{â†’} E + P$

where E is enzyme, S is substrate, P is product and ES is enzyme-substrate complex.

Michaelis Menten equation is given by:

$R e a t i o n r a t e = v = \frac{d [P]}{d t} = \frac{V_{m a x} [S]}{K_{M} + [S]}$

Here, V_max represents the maximum rate achieved by the system, happening at saturating substrate concentration. The value of the Michaelis constant K_M is numerically equal to the substrate concentration at which the reaction rate is half of V_max.