Consider the binding of a protein P to a short segment of DNA. For the following questions, assume that the concentration of DNA segments is much lower than the concentration of P. The reaction mechanism for binding can be represented as
P + DNA ↔ P-DNA → P-DNA'
where the second step represents a conformational change in the protein. Calculate the rate law for the appearance of P-DNA' under the following conditions.
a. The first step in the mechanism equilibrates rapidly relative to the rate of the overall reaction and [P-DNA] << [DNA].
