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Enzymatic reaction rate surprises researchers

May 07, 2003

Enzymatic reactions, which are crucial in biological processes, can occur much faster than previously thought possible, as researchers at the biophysics department of the Faculty of Exact Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam have discovered. Their findings were published on line on 5 May in Nature Structural Biology (www.nature.com/nsb). The research carried out by Marloes Groot and Rienk van Grondelle found a fundamental enzymatic reaction involving both an H+ and an H- atom in reducing a chlorophyll-like molecule that occurs on a staggeringly fast picosecond (10-12 s) time scale. Researchers had previously assumed that chemical reactions in enzymes proceeded at the relatively leisurely pace of a few microseconds (10-6 s) or more.

Proteins are known to move very fast. Studies in recent years using ultra fast lasers have shown amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, racing past each other on a femtosecond time scale, in other words from about 1010-15s. What no one knew was whether biochemical reactions could also occur on such a short time scale.

University of Sheffield biochemists have succeeded in producing large quantities of a unique enzyme that is involved in the production of plant chlorophyll. The fact that this enzyme can be 'started' with light gave the VU biophysicists the idea of starting and monitoring the reaction with short laser pulses. They used a short laser pulse of 30 femtoseconds (10-15 s) to trigger the reaction, and a second one to monitor the reaction. The results of the research have demonstrated that the most important steps in the reaction, attaching a proton and a hydride to the chlorophyll-like molecule, completes within 3 picoseconds. This shows that the fundamental, elementary chemical reactions in enzymes are also ultrafast and can occur on a time scale comparable with protein motion.

"Biological processes are often surprisingly successful", Marloes Groot explains. "This result gives us the key to unravel the true mechanism of such fundamental biological reactions. For example, it will put us in a position to determine the precise movement of the protein that enables this complex reaction and determines its success."

Vrije Universiteit

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