Quasi-steady-state analysis example

Description of the quasy-steady-state approximation method is done in the section "Quasi-Steady-State Analysis". Below we use the notation given there.

As an example consider the simplest enzyme reaction

which involves an enzyme E binding to a substrate S to form a complex ES and its dissociation into a product P and the enzyme E.

Let us find the conditions under which the concentration of the complex ES is quasi-stationary in time t = 0. To do this, we consider the expressions

which result in the following derivatives

Next, we find the formulas for δt_ES and r_ES:

Thus, the complex ES is in quasi-steady state at t = 0 only when δt_ES << 1, i.e.