Enzyme assays are laboratory methods for measuring enzymatic activity. They are vital for the study of enzyme kinetics and enzyme inhibition.
Amounts of enzymes can either be expressed as molar amounts, as with any other chemical, or measured in terms of activity, in enzyme units.
Enzyme activity = moles of substrate converted per unit time = rate × reaction volume. Enzyme activity is a measure of the quantity of active enzyme present and is thus...
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Enzyme assays are laboratory methods for measuring enzymatic activity. They are vital for the study of enzyme kinetics and enzyme inhibition.
Amounts of enzymes can either be expressed as molar amounts, as with any other chemical, or measured in terms of activity, in enzyme units.
Enzyme activity = moles of substrate converted per unit time = rate × reaction volume. Enzyme activity is a measure of the quantity of active enzyme present and is thus dependent on conditions, which should be specified. The SI unit is the katal, 1 katal = 1 mol s, but this is an excessively large unit. A more practical and commonly-used value is 1 enzyme unit (U) = 1 μmol min. 1 U corresponds to 16.67 nanokatals.
The specific activity of an enzyme is another common unit. This is the activity of an enzyme per milligram of total protein (expressed in μmol minmg). Specific activity gives a measurement of the purity of the enzyme. It is the amount of product formed by an enzyme in a given amount of time under...
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