Question

A mixture of enzyme and inhibitor is run through a size-exclusion chromatography column. The activity of the enzyme is assessed before and after the chromatography. The enzyme has more activity after the chromatography step. Which of the following is true?
a. The inhibitor is an irreversible inhibitor.
b. The enzyme was denatured during chromatography.
c. The enzyme was not eluted fully from the column.
d. The enzyme was degraded by the column.
e. The inhibitor is a reversible inhibitor.

Answer 1

Answer:

e. The inhibitor is a reversible inhibitor.

Explanation:

The reason for which the enzyme has more activity after the chromatography step is that the enzyme was separated from the inhibitor.

The enzyme and the inhibitor could only be separated by size-exclusion chromatography if they had different sizes (which is tipically the case between enzymes and inhibitors) and the inhibitor was a reversible one.

When mixed together, the inhibitor was bonded to the enzyme.