We are interested in finding examples in the literature of clean
experimental data showing rates of reactions catalysed by allosteric
enzymes as a function of effector (inhibitor or activator)
concentration at several different substrate concentrations. Although
one might think that many such examples would exist in the literature
from around 1970, we have had very little success in tracking them
down. The classic paper of Blangy, Buc and Monod (1968) J. Molec.
Biol. 31, 13-35 on phosphofructokinase is a good example of the sort
of paper we are looking for, though it concentrates on rate as a
function of substrate concentration rather than as a function of
effector concentration. Another enzyme for which we have found data is
aspartate transcarbamylase. References to papers on other enzymes will
be very welcome.
It is not too difficult to find examples of the converse type of
graph, i.e. plots of rate as a function of substrate concentration at
two or three inhibitor or activator concentrations, but these are not
really sufficient for the sort of analysis we would like to do.
Athel Cornish-Bowden (athel at ibsm.cnrs-mrs.fr)
Jannie Hofmeyr (jhsh at maties.sun.ac.za)
