Introducing total substrates simplifies theoretical analysis at non-negligible enzyme concentrations: pseudo first-order kinetics and the loss of zero-order ultrasensitivity

The Briggs–Haldane standard quasi-steady state approximation and the resulting rate expressions for enzyme driven biochemical reactions provide crucial theoretical insight compared to the full set of equations describing the reactions, mainly because it reduces the number of variables and equations. When the enzyme is in excess of the substrate, a significant amount of substrate can be bound in intermediate complexes, so-called substrate sequestration. The standard quasi-steady state approximation is known to fail under such conditions, a main reason being that it neglects these intermediate complexes. Introducing total substrates, i.e., the sums of substrates and intermediate complexes, provides a similar reduction of the number of variables to consider but without neglecting the contribution from intermediate complexes. The present theoretical study illustrates the usefulness of such simplifications for the understanding of biochemical reaction schemes. We show how introducing the total substrates allows a simple analytical treatment of the relevance of significant enzyme concentrations for pseudo first-order kinetics and reconciles two proposed criteria for the validity of the pseudo first-order approximation. In addition, we show how the loss of zero-order ultrasensitivity in covalent modification cycles can be analyzed, in particular that approaches such as metabolic control analysis are immediately applicable to scenarios described by the total substrates with enzyme concentrations higher than or comparable to the substrate concentrations. A simple criterion which excludes the possibility of zero-order ultrasensitivity is presented.