Steady state enzyme kinetics: experimental design and data analysis by microcomputer

Abstract

One of the most time-consuming, yet essential, operations involved in the steady state kinetic study of enzymes is the design and optimization of experimental conditions. A computer program was developed for the Sinclair ZX-81 (or TS-1000, 1500) microcomputer which will optimize substrate concentration for preliminary and subsequently more refined kinetic analysis of one, two or three substrate systems. This program also analyzes the data collected from these studies by linear regression, weighted linear regression or weighted non-linear regression. In addition to the above program several of the enzyme kinetic statistical analysis programs of Cleland (1979) have been translated from FORTRAN into BASIC and implemented on the ZX-81 and the TRS-80 model II. Inexpensive commercially available software was used to overcome the inability of the ZX-81 to read data files from magnetic tape making the data analysis programs easier to use.