Evolutionary optimization of the catalytic effectiveness of an enzyme

Abstract

The kinetic and thermodynamic features of reactions catalyzed by present-day enzymes appear to be the consequence of the evolution of these proteins toward maximal catalytic effectiveness. These features are identified and analyzed (in detail for one substrate-one product enzymes) by using ideas that link the energetics of the reaction catalyzed by an enzyme to the maximization of its catalytic efficiency. A catalytically optimized enzyme will have a value for the "internal" equilibrium constant (Kint, the equilibrium constant between the substrates and the products of the enzyme when all are bound productively) that depends on how close to equilibrium the enzyme maintains its reaction in vivo. Two classes are apparent. For an enzyme that operates near equilibrium, the catalytic efficiency is sensitive to the value of Kint, and the optimum value of Kint is near unity. For an enzyme that operates far from equilibrium, the catalytic efficiency is less sensitive to the value of Kint, and Kint assumes a value that ensures that the rate of the chemical transformation is equal to the rate of product release. In each of these cases, the internal thermodynamics is "dynamically matched", where the concentrations of substrate- and product-containing complexes are equal at the steady state in vivo.