11-07: Kinetic modeling of processive cellulases

Processivity of cellulolytic enzymes has been shown to be essential for their activity against crystalline substrates, and processive enzymes make up a major part of the enzyme cocktails used for biomass saccharification. Nevertheless, mechanisms and regulation of processive cellulases remain to be fully elucidated. Progress in this area will require better descriptions of structural, energetic and kinetic aspects. In this contribution we address the latter though the introduction of a deterministic theory for processive cellulases. It is shown that a processive reaction scheme can be solved and applied to both steady state and time resolved experimental data. This analysis of experimental data provides kinetic parameters with specific physical meaning and allows identification of rate limiting steps for the processive enzyme.