REVIEW: A Thermodynamic and Theoretical View for Enzyme Regulation

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Qinyi Zhao

Medical Institute, CRRC, POB 2619, Beijing 100068, PR China; E-mail: qinyizhao@gmail.com; qinyi_zhao@163.com

Received May 8, 2014; Revision received August 26, 2014

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Precise regulation is fundamental to the proper functioning of enzymes in a cell. Current opinions about this, such as allosteric regulation and dynamic contribution to enzyme regulation, are experimental models and substantially empirical. Here we proposed a theoretical and thermodynamic model of enzyme regulation. The main idea is that enzyme regulation is processed via the regulation of abundance of active conformation in the reaction buffer. The theoretical foundation, experimental evidence, and experimental criteria to test our model are discussed and reviewed. We conclude that basic principles of enzyme regulation are laws of protein thermodynamics and it can be analyzed using the concept of distribution curve of active conformations of enzymes.

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KEY WORDS: enzyme regulation, thermodynamics, active conformation, distribution curve

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297915010010

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