Abstract
The influence of the formation of unreactive complexes between cytochrome c and cytochrome oxidase on the kinetics of the cytochrome c-cytoehrome oxidase reaction is considered. The influence of these complexes can be expressed as a function which relates the concentration of cytochrome c with the concentrations and number of unreactive complex species existing in the system and with the association constants for the various species of complexes.
The kinetics of the reaction in certain systems transform exactly into Michaelis-Menten kinetics if this function reduces to 1. The conditions under which it may equal 1 are discussed, and estimates of two possible association constants are made.
Certain problems relating to the interpretation of kinetic data from systems containing high concentrations of unreactive complexes are discussed.