Question

Enzyme catalysis

Q) How can catalytic rate enhancement factor be used to determine the number of H-bonds or dipole-dipole interactions?

Answer 1

In enzyme catalysis, a strong interaction betweeen the substrate and enzyme by hydrogen bonding and/or dipole-dipole type of interaction would enhance the rate of enzymatic reaction. So when a reaction without an enzyme is compared with the reaction in which a certain amount of enzyme had been added, the rate of reaction in the latter case is increased. the amount of increase in rate of reaction is thus directly proportional to the extent of hydrogen boding or dipole-dipole type interaction (weaker than hydrogen bonding) in the substrate enzyme complex which can now be measured.