ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on biomolecular kinetics and covers reactions in which at least one reacting species is a biopolymer, such as a protein or nucleic acid. It discusses the limitations of the interpretation, which may be placed on the derived parameters. Traditionally and routinely, enzyme activity was usually assayed under steady-state conditions, that is, with a substrate concentration that is much higher than that of the enzyme, and the reaction is analyzed by the rate of disappearance of substrate (S) or formation of product (P). One of the most significant comparisons is that steady-state analysis is restricted to systems that show some form of flux, as in enzyme-catalyzed reactions. Transient kinetic analysis can be applied to any reaction, whether it be reversible or irreversible, and therefore is a much more widely applicable technique.
