The determination of thermodynamic allosteric parameters of an enzyme undergoing steady-state turnover.

The free energy description of protein-ligand and ligand-ligand interactions, originally proposed by Weber [Weber, G., Biochemistry 11, 864-878 (1972)] is applied to allosteric enzymes. The free energy of interaction between an allosteric ligand and the substrate can be obtained from the ratio of Michaelis constants at zero and saturating concentrations of allosteric ligand even if the "rapid equilibrium" assumption does not apply to the substrate.

Influence of polyethylene glycols on the kinetics of rat liver phosphofructokinase.

The influence of polyethylene glycols on the kinetics of purified rat liver phosphofructokinase was examined because polyethylene glycol often has an associative influence on proteins without specifically interacting with them. Polyethylene glycol was found to prevent or slow the spontaneous inactivation, due to subunit dissociation, of rat liver phosphofructokinase which occurs at low protein concentration (10 microgram/ml) in an isotonic, pH 7 buffer in the absence of substrates. This protection is favored by increasing size and concentration of polyethylene glycol.

Studies on the kinetic mechanism of oxidative phosphorylation.

The kinetics of the synthesis of ATP from ADP and Pi by beef heart submitochondrial particles were examined. When Pi was the variable substrate positive cooperativity was observed, whereas if ADP was varied, linear double reciprocal plots were obtained. The analog of Pi, thiophosphate, was a noncompetitive inhibitor of ATP synthesis with respect to ADP, while the analog of ADP, AMP (CH2)P, was an uncompetitive Pi leads to ATP exchange inhibitor.

Demographic and economic correlates of development as measured by energy consumption.

Per capita consumption of energy in 112 world areas was related to a series of economic and demographic variables. Linear associations were found for four economic variables, and a curvilinear association in the form of a J curve for four demographic variables. It was found that the exponential distribution y = e(-X) for the curves for the demographic variables (crude birth rate, infant mortality rate, percent of deaths from contagious and infectious diseases, and life expectancy).