1. The pH-dependence is considered of a reaction between E and S that proceeds through an intermediate ES under "Briggs-Haldane' conditions, i.e. there is a steady state in ES and [S]o greater than [E]T, where [S]o is the initial concentration of S and [E]T is the total concentration of all forms of E. Reactants and intermediates are assumed to interconvert in three protonic states (E equilibrium ES; EH equilibrium EHS; EH2 equilibrium EH2S), but only EHS provides products by an irreversible reaction whose rate constant is kcat. Protonations are assumed to be so fast that they are all at equilibrium. 2. The rate equation for this model is shown to be v = d[P]/dt = (kcat.[E]T[S]o/A)/[(KmBC/DA) + [S]o], where Km is the usual assembly of rate constants around EHS and A-D are functions of the form (1 + [H]/K1 + K2/[H]), in which K1 and K2 are: in A, the molecular ionization constants of ES; in B, the analogous constants of E; in C and D, apparent ionization constants composed of molecular ionization constants (of E or ES) and assemblies of rate constants. 3. As in earlier treatments of this type of reaction which involve either the assumption that the reactants and intermediate are in equilibrium or the assumption of Peller & Alberty [(1959) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 81, 5907-5914] that only EH and EHS interconvert directly, the pH-dependence of kcat. is determined only by A. 4. The pH-dependence of Km is determined in general by B-C/A-D, but when reactants and intermediate are in equilibrium, C identical to D and this expression simplifies to B/A. 5. The pH-dependence of kcat./Km, i.e. of the rate when [S]o less than Km, is not necessarily a simple bell-shaped curve characterized only by the ionization constants of B, but is a complex curve characterized by D/B-C. 6. Various situations are discussed in which the pH-dependence of kcat./Km is determined by assemblies simpler than D/B-C. The special situation in which a kcat./Km-pH profile provides the molecular pKa values of the intermediate ES complex is delineated.
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