Kinetic studies of glutamate dehydrogenase. The reductive amination of 2-oxoglutarate.

1. Kinetic studies of the reductive amination of 2-oxoglutarate catalysed by glutamate dehydrogenase with NADH and NADPH as coenzyme were made at pH7.0 and pH 8.0. The concentrations of both substrates and coenzymes were simultaneously varied over wide ranges. Lineweaver-Burk plots with respect to each substrate and coenzyme were linear, except that with high concentrations of 2-oxoglutarate or coenzyme inhibition occurred. There was no evidence of the negative homotropic interactions between the enzyme subunits that were revealed in previous kinetic studies of the reverse reaction. 2. The initial-rate results are shown to be inconsistent with any of the six possible compulsory-order mechanisms for this three-substrate reaction, and it is concluded that a random-order mechanism is the most likely one. On the basis of this mechanism, the dissociation constants of all the binary, ternary and quaternary complexes of the enzyme and substrates are calculated from initial-rate parameters. 3. The results are discussed in relation to those of earlier workers who concluded that the mechanism is of the compulsory-order type.