Stochasticity and positive feedback enable enzyme kinetics at the membrane to sense reaction size.

Here, we present detailed kinetic analyses of a panel of soluble lipid kinases and phosphatases, as well as Ras activating proteins, acting on their respective membrane surface substrates. The results reveal that the mean catalytic rate of such interfacial enzymes can exhibit a strong dependence on the size of the reaction system-in this case membrane area. Experimental measurements and kinetic modeling reveal how stochastic effects stemming from low molecular copy numbers of the enzymes alter reaction kinetics based on mechanistic characteristics of the enzyme, such as positive feedback. For the competitive enzymatic cycles studied here, the final product-consisting of a specific lipid composition or Ras activity state-depends on the size of the reaction system. Furthermore, we demonstrate how these reaction size dependencies can be controlled by engineering feedback mechanisms into the enzymes.