What can you tell about the affinity of substrate to the enz

What can you tell about the affinity of substrate to the enzyme, if the value of k-1 is much larger than k2? In this situation:

a. The affinity will be strong and value of K_M will be high

b. The affinity will be weak and value of K_M will be high

c. The affinity will be strong and value of K_M will be zero

d. K_M does not give information about the affinity of a substrate to enzyme under these conditions.

e. None of the above

Solution

If K₂ << K_-1, then K_m will be equal to K_-1/ K₁= K_ES and K_m can be taken as a measure of the dissocitaion constant for the ES (Enzyme-Substrate complex) which is an inverse measure of the binding affinity of the enzyme for that substrate. So, the correct answer is option B.