Question

What is competitive inhibition ? Give an example.

Answer 1

Competitive inhibition is a type of reversible inhibition where the substrate and the inhibitor compete to bind at the active site of the enzyme. Though specificity towards a specific substrate is an important characteristic of any enzyme, the inhibitor can still compete with the substrate for the active site of the enzyme because the inhibitor is usually an analogue of the substrate (resembles or is similar in structure to that of the substrate).

For example; The enzyme Succinate dehydrogenage catalyzes the conversion of succinate to fumarate. Malonate which has the similar structure as that of succinate acts a competitive inhibitor.