Substraattipitoisuus

Substraattipitoisuus refers to the concentration of a substrate in a biological or chemical system. In enzyme kinetics, for example, it denotes the amount of reactant molecules available to bind with an enzyme. This concentration significantly influences the rate of enzymatic reactions. At low substrate concentrations, the reaction rate is directly proportional to the substrate concentration, as more substrate molecules lead to more frequent collisions with enzyme active sites. As substrate concentration increases, the enzyme active sites become saturated, meaning most enzymes are occupied by substrate molecules. At this point, the reaction rate plateaus and becomes independent of further increases in substrate concentration, reaching its maximum velocity. Understanding substrate concentration is crucial for optimizing reaction conditions in biochemical assays, industrial biocatalysis, and for studying metabolic pathways. In other contexts, such as plant science, it might refer to the concentration of nutrients or other dissolved substances in the growing medium of plants.