Kinetic differentiation between enzyme inactivation involving complex-formation with the inactivator and that involving a conformation-change step.

It has been suggested that the complexing type of inactivation in which the inactivator binds reversibly with the enzyme before inactivation cannot be differentiated kinetically from that a slow enzyme conformation change is involved as a first step [Rakitzis (1986) J. Theor. Biol. 122, 247-249]. The kinetics of the substrate reaction during modification of enzyme activity previously described [Tsou (1988) Adv. Enzymol. Relat. Areas Mol. Biol. 61, 381-436] have now been applied to this problem and equations derived to show that the slow-conformational-change type can be differentiated from the complexing type by plotting the final concentration of product formed, [P]infinity, against the reciprocal of inactivator concentration. The reaction of hexokinase with 2-chloromercuri-4-nitrophenol has been shown to involve a conformational change of the enzyme before inactivation.