Question

The disruption of interactions between substrate and solvent is referred to as __________

(a) desolvation

(b) molecular orbital steering

(c) protonation

(d) deprotonation

The question was asked by my college director while I was bunking the class.

The origin of the question is Enzyme Kinetics in section Enzyme Kinetics of Enzyme Technology

Answer 1

The correct answer is (a) desolvation

To explain: The removal and addition of protons [H^+] is referred to as deprotonation and protonation respectively. Molecular orbital steering explains that the active residues should guide the groups in the substrate for catalysis to occur. Desolvation refers to disruption of interactions between substrate and interaction. This may be achieved by multiple non-covalent interactions between hydrophobic active site group and the substrate.