Investigation of the Catalytic Mechanism of Lysozyme using Substrate Analogs

The catalytic mechanism of hen egg-white lysozyme is investigated by comparing the rate of hydrolysis of the trifluoro-Nacetyl analog of chitohexose to that of chitohexose. Since the binding properties of the two hexasaccharides are shown to be similar, differences observed in the rates of hydrolysis of the two oligosaccharides are discussed in terms of recent model studies for and mechanistic studies of lysozyme hydrolysis. The role of distortion in the catalytic mechanism is investigated by comparing the kinetic parameters of the lysozyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of a xylose substrate analog with that of a glucose substrate analog.