The effect of pH upon the p-galactosidase-catalyzed hydrolyses of aryl galactosides is essentially similar for each of the three steps of their hydrolysis. It differs markedly from that on the hydrolysis of galactosyl pyridinium salts ; these proceed through a 'non-bottleneck' pathway.While pH increase abolishes the rate of every step of the reaction for aryl galactosides, it favors the first step of hydrolysis of the galactosyl pyridinium salts, which supports the hypothesis that catalysis of these compounds originates largely in non-covalent interactions.The effect of change in pH upon the kinetic parameters of an enzyme-catalysed process is widely studied. However, whilst results are experimentally easy to obtain, their interpretation is more complicated. Bloomfield and Alberty [1] derived some simplified equations, and these are often applied without knowledge as to whether the necessary simplifying assumptions are indeed correct. Knowles has widely discussed this question [ 2 ] . The interpretation of such results should, in the case of Escherichia coli /3-galactosidase, be facilitated by the use of substrates whose hydrolysis can be studied by other methods.
THEORYThe action of j-galactosidase upon a Pa-galactopyranosyl derivative can be described by the following scheme [3 -81 :where E . GalX* is a complex resulting from the conformational step [7,8]. Which step is rate-deterEnzyme. 8-Galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.23) mining, and whether the k + 2 or k + 4 pathway is taken from the first ES complex, can be determined by criteria other than the dependence of kinetic parameters upon pH. For some substrates, such evidence has been obtained.
Degalactosylation Rate-LimitingAt low temperature [9] or with the product of a mutant Z gene [lo], a 'burst' of aglycone is observed which is evidence of degalactosylation ( k , 6 k -5/ki s) being rate-limiting. Under ordinary conditions, however, this process is too fast for conventional stoppedflow work and degalactosylation can be shown to be rate-limiting by methanol competition. Addition of methanol, which is about 100 times more nucleophilic than water towards the galactosyl-enzyme [3,6], causes an increase in kcat, and a pronounced increase in K , only if degalactosylation is the slow step: if it is not, methanol causes a slight decrease in k,,, and a modest increase in K , [3,5 -71. Degalactosylation is associated with an a-deuterium kinetic isotope effect of 1.25 [S]; this is one piece of evidence for the complex, ion-paired nature of the galactosyl-enzyme [S].
k, 2 Rate-LimitingThe non-covalent rearrangement of the ES complex is characterised by the absence of both an CIdeuterium kinetic isotope effect and any but the weak-