In
biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
, the Lineweaver–Burk plot (or double reciprocal plot) is a graphical representation of the Lineweaver–Burk equation of
enzyme kinetics
Enzyme kinetics is the study of the rates of enzyme-catalysed chemical reactions. In enzyme kinetics, the reaction rate is measured and the effects of varying the conditions of the reaction are investigated. Studying an enzyme's kinetics in thi ...
, described by
Hans Lineweaver and
Dean Burk
Dean Turner Burk (March 21, 1904 – October 6, 1988) was an American biochemist, medical researcher, and a cancer researcher at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and the National Cancer Institute. In 1934, he developed the Lineweaver–Burk plot toge ...
in 1934. The Lineweaver–Burk plot for inhibited enzymes can be compared to no inhibitor to determine how the inhibitor is competing with the enzyme.
The Lineweaver–Burk plot is correct when the enzyme kinetics obey ideal second-order kinetics, however
non-linear regression is needed for systems that do not behave ideally. The double reciprocal plot distorts the error structure of the data, and is therefore not the most accurate tool for the determination of enzyme kinetic parameters. While the Lineweaver–Burk plot has historically been used for evaluation of the parameters, together with the alternative linear forms of the
Michaelis–Menten equation such as the
Hanes-Woolf plot or
Eadie–Hofstee plot, all linearized forms of the Michaelis–Menten equation should be avoided to calculate the kinetic parameters. Non-linear regression methods are significantly more accurate and no longer computationally inaccessible.
Definitions for Interpreting Plot