Which Enzyme Uses What Tricks?

Abstract

Enzymes bring about reaction rate acceleration through a number of tricks. Of the tricks used to bring down activation energy, some are entropic, and others are enthalpic in nature. Various tools are recruited and relied on by each enzyme in different proportions. All these are within the realm of simple physical and chemical explanations – the combined effect however is quite dramatic! While there is no common formula, each enzyme uses a combination of these tricks to achieve the objective (Fig. 7.1). Indeed, each enzyme is a biological experiment, just the same way evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr described evolution of each species.