Orotic acid is decarboxylated with a half-time (t1/2) of 78 million years in neutral aqueous solution at room temperature, as indicated by reactions in quartz tubes at elevated temperatures. Spontaneous hydrolysis of phosphodiester bonds, such as those present in the backbone of DNA, proceeds even more slowly at high temperatures, but the heat of activation is less positive, so that dimethyl phosphate is hydrolyzed with a t1/2 of 130,000 years in neutral solution at room temperature. These values extend the known range of spontaneous rate constants for reactions that are also susceptible to catalysis by enzymes to more than 14 orders of magnitude. Values of the second-order rate constant kcat/Km for the corresponding enzyme reactions are confined to a range of only 600-fold, in contrast. Orotidine 5'-phosphate decarboxylase, an extremely proficient enzyme, enhances the rate of reaction by a factor of 10(17) and is estimated to bind the altered substrate in the transition state with a dissociation constant of less than 5 x 10(-24) M.

The fastest known reactions include reactions catalyzed by enzymes, but the rate enhancements that enzymes produce had not been fully appreciated until recently. In the absence of enzymes, these same reactions are among the slowest that have ever been measured, some with half-times approaching the age of the Earth. This difference provides a measure of the proficiencies of enzymes as catalysts and their relative susceptibilities to inhibition by transition-state analogue inhibitors. Thermodynamic comparisons between spontaneous and enzyme-catalyzed reactions, coupled with structural information, suggest that in addition to electrostatic and H-bonding interactions, the liberation of water molecules from an enzyme's active site into bulk solvent sometimes plays a prominent role in determining the relative binding affinities of the altered substrate in the ground state and transition state. These comparisons also indicate a high level of synergism in the action of binding determinants of both the substrate and the enzyme, that are not directly involved in the chemical transformation of the substrate but contribute to the rate of its transformation at an enzyme's active site.

Equilibria of distribution of amino acid side chains, between their dilute aqueous solutions and the vapor phase at 25 degrees C, have been determined by dynamic vapor pressure measurements. After correction to pH 7, the resulting scale of "hydration potentials", or free energies of transfer from the vapor phase to neutral aqueous solution, spans a range of approximately 22 kcal/mol. The side chain of arginine is much more hydrophilic than those of the other common amino acids, with an equilibrium constant of approximately 10(15) for transfer from the vapor phase to neutral aqueous solution. Hydration potentials are more closely correlated with the relative tendencies of the various amino acids to appear at the surface of globular proteins than had been evident from earlier distribution studies on the free amino acids. Both properties are associated with a pronounced bias in the genetic code.

No abstract

To assess the relative proficiencies of enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of internal and C-terminal peptide bonds, the rates of the corresponding nonenzymatic reactions were examined at elevated temperatures in sealed quartz tubes, yielding linear Arrhenius plots. The results indicate that in neutral solution at 25 °C, peptide bonds are hydrolyzed with half-times of approximately 500 years for the C-terminal bond of acetylglycylglycine, 600 years for the internal peptide bond of acetylglycylglycine N-methylamide, and 350 years for the dipeptide glycylglycine. These reactions, insensitive to changing pH or ionic strength, appear to represent uncatalyzed attack by water on the peptide bond. Comparison of rate constants indicates very strong binding of the altered substrate in the transition states for the corresponding enzyme reactions, K tx attaining a value of less than 10-17 M in carboxypeptidase B. The half-life of the N-terminal peptide bond in glycylglycine N-methylamide, whose hydrolysis might have provided a reference for assessing the catalytic proficiency of an aminopeptidase, could not be determined because this compound undergoes relatively rapid intramolecular displacement to form diketopiperazine (t 1/2 ∼ 35 days at pH 7 and 37 °C). The speed of this latter process suggests an evolutionary rationale for posttranslational N-acetylation of proteins in higher organisms, as a protection against rapid degradation.