ABSTRACT
The use of inhibitors, especially product inhibitors, are useful to distinguish between different mechanisms, especially for two-substrate reactions. Different inhibition patterns may be found with different mechanisms, even when they lead to identical rate laws in the absence of inhibitors. Cleland developed a set of rules for predicting by inspection the type of inhibition to be expected from an examination of the steady-state mechanisms containing no random sequences unless they were in rapid equilibrium; otherwise, the complete rate equation must be derived. In addition, different mechanisms generate quite different patterns for product inhibition and substrate inhibition, as well as for the effects observed on addition of dead-end inhibitors.
