An Unusual Isotope Effect on Substrate Inhibition in the Oxidation of Arachidonic Acid by Lipoxygenase

Abstract
Soybean lipoxygenase catalyzes the oxidation of arachidonic acid to 15S-HPETE. The reaction displays strong substrate inhibition with unlabeled substrate but no discernible substrate inhibition with arachidonic acid labeled with deuterium at C13, the site of hydrogen/deuterium atom abstraction. The unusual behavior is due primarily to a large kinetic isotope effect on Km,O2 as a result of the strong selection against deuterium in the abstraction step.