Biochemistry Commons^™

Comparison Of Activation Enthalpies For Aminoglycoside Modification Reactions, Brittany Sterling Soto

Masters Theses

At highly elevated temperatures, many biological reactions can proceed spontaneously from the ground state to the transition state. However, due to the long half-life of these reactions, catalysts are required to catalyze these reactions at modern day temperatures by lowering the activation energy. Wolfenden et al. has previously shown that catalysts enhance the rate of the reaction by reducing the enthalpy of activation. Therefore, the activation energies have been determined for three aminoglycoside modifying enzymes, APH(3’)-IIIa, AAC(3)-IIIb, and AAC(3)-VIa, to determine whether these three enzymes distinguish between the two classes of aminoglycoside antibiotics by reducing the enthalpy of activation during …