1. Introduction to enzyme kinetics

1.1 Reaction speed

The initial rate (v _i ) of an enzymatic reaction is the measure of the amount of substrate lost per unit of time, or the amount of product formed per unit of time. It is represented by a primary graph in which the concentration of product that has appeared or substrate that remains is plotted against time. The initial velocities correspond to the slopes calculated from the straight lines of the curves obtained for the different substrate concentrations (figure 1 ).