assaftolko Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) 1 EU is defined as the amount of enzyme that will yield product formation rate of 1 micromole per minute. So it seems that EU has the units of amount (mass or moles), as it's defined as "the amount of enzyme which..." . But in the class they told us that under certain conditions, 1 EU=the reaction rate. So now - EU has the units of rate... for me it's like you would ask me how old am I and I would answer: 55 mph! How is this transition made from the defenition of "amount" to that of "rate"??? what's the math behind it? Edited January 22, 2014 by assaftolko Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharonY Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 I am only aware of using U as a unit of amount and the other one does not make any sense to me. You can estimate enzyme activity from that (by normalizing it against amount) but that is not the definition or usage of U. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assaftolko Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 Actually I found another refference to the second defenition (which mean U=Vmax if I wasn't clear) here in wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme_assay Under enzyme activity: "A more practical and commonly used value is enzyme unit (U) = 1 μmolmin−1. 1 U corresponds to 16.67 nanokatals.[1]" Rings any bells? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sona_p Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 1 U of enzyme is the amount of enzyme that will digest 1ug of DNA in 1hr at required/optimum temperature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadn737 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 1 U of enzyme is the amount of enzyme that will digest 1ug of DNA in 1hr at required/optimum temperature. Assuming that the enzyme in question is a restriction enzyme....that definition doesn't work for other kinds of enzymes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sona_p Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 That's true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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