A study of the pH- and temperature-dependence of the reactions of yeast alcohol dehydrogenase with ethanol, acetaldehyde and butyraldehyde as substrates.

The kinetics of ethanol oxidation by NAD+, and acetaldehyde and butyraldehyde reduction by NADH, catalysed by yeast alcohol dehydrogenase, were studied in the pH range 4.9--9.9 at 25 degrees C and in the temperature range 14.8--43.5 degrees C at pH 7.05. The kinetics of reduction of acetaldehyde by [4A-2H]NADH at pH 7.05 and pH 8.9 at 25 degrees C were also studied. The results of the kinetic experiments indicate that the mechanism of catalysis, previously proposed on the basis of studies at pH 7.05 and 25 degrees C (Dickinson & Monger, 1973), applies over the wide range of conditions now tested. Values of some of the initial-rate parameters obtained were used to deduce information about the pH- and temperature-dependence of the specific rates of combination of enzyme and coenzymes and of the dissociation of the enzyme--coenzyme compounds. Primary and secondary plots of initial-rate data are deposited as Supplementary Publication SUP 50043 (20 pages) with the British Library (Lending Division), Boston Spa, Wetherby, Yorks. LS23 7BQ, U.K., from whom copies may be obtained under the terms indicated in Biochem. J. (1975) 145, 5.