Enzymology

Enzymology ia an essential discipline to study the kinetics of enzymic reactions catalyzed in the metabolic pathways. Analysis of the metabolic fluxes requires the acquisition of all kinetic parameters for each enzyme of the pathway to set up the mathematical models useful to predict the limiting step in the pathway, or how sensitive is the flux of the pathway, or to model the regulations and feed-backs. Also, studying each step of a metabolic pathway will allow to determine the elasticity of each isolated enzyme, expressing how its rate varies with the concentration of any metabolite that affects it: this can be its substrate, product, or any other metabolite of the studied pathway or from another metabolic pathway.

For a comprehensive survey of enzymology the readers are are encouraged to go to the website of famous enzymologists devoted to Complex Systems: Athel Cornish-Bowden and Marilu Cardenas (http://bip.cnrs-mrs.fr/bip10/mcafaq.htm), Marseilles University. In this webpage all frequently asked questions and most of definitions about metabolic control analysis are given in a very didactic way.