Biological catalysts: the enzymes

Enzymes are substances found in biological systems that are catalysts for specific biochemical processes. Although earlier discoveries of enzymes had been made, a significant confirmation of their importance in living systems was found in 1897 by the German chemist Eduard Buchner, who showed that the filtered cell-free liquor from crushed yeast cells could bring about the conversion of sugar to carbon dioxide. Since that time more than 1,000 enzymes have been recognized, each specific to a particular chemical reaction occurring in living systems. More than 100 of these have been isolated in relatively pure form, including a number of crystallized enzymes. The first enzymes to be crystallized were urease, isolated from the jack bean and crystallized in 1926 by James Batcheller Sumner, and pepsin, crystallized in 1930 by John Howard Northrop, both of whom won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work. These purified materials were shown to be proteins—chain compounds of about 20 natural amino acids RCH(NH₂)COOH, ranging from the simplest, glycine, in which R is hydrogen, to tryptophan, in which R is

Not only have methods been worked out for determining the amino acids found in an enzyme, but also the sequence of amino acids in an enzyme can be elucidated by a method developed by the English biochemist Frederick Sanger in determining the structure of the protein hormone insulin. The first enzyme to have its complete amino acid sequence determined in this way was bovine pancreatic ribonuclease, which has 124 amino acids in its chain and a molecular weight of about 14,000; the enzyme catalyzes the degradation of ribonucleic acid, a substance active in protein synthesis in living cells. In January 1969 the synthesis of this same enzyme was reported from two different laboratories. The activity of an enzyme depends upon a three-dimensional, or tertiary, structure, but this, in turn, appears to depend solely upon the linear sequence of amino acids. The success of an enzyme’s synthesis can be unequivocally checked by test of its enzymatic activity.

Enzymes are extremely reactive, as can be shown with a very simple reaction—the splitting of hydrogen peroxide to form water and oxygen—brought about by colloidal metals and by the enzyme catalase. It has been found that one molecule of the latter will cause several million molecules of peroxide to decompose per minute, a rate comparable to that obtained with the best colloidal preparations. This speed of catalase decomposition is probably a maximum for enzymes. Slower-acting enzymes normally react at speeds of hundreds of reactions per minute. The rate of reaction is often expressed by an equation developed by L. Michaelis and M.L. Menten of the form

in which V and K are constants for the particular enzymatic process, K being termed the Michaelis constant and [S] designated as the concentration of the reactant undergoing change. At low concentrations of S the rate is V[S]/K or proportional to the substrate concentration [S], whereas at high substrate concentrations the [S] terms cancel out and the reaction is essentially independent of the substrate concentration.

A second characteristic of enzymes is their extreme specificity. It has been suggested that each biochemical process has its own specific enzyme. The biochemical processes induced by enzymes fall into broad classifications, such as hydrolysis, decomposition (or “splitting”), synthesis, and hydrogenation-dehydrogenation; as with catalysts in general, enzymes are active for both forward and reverse reactions.

Like the laboratory catalysts, enzymes frequently have activators—coenzymes, which may be prosthetic groups (firmly bound to the enzyme itself), and inorganic ions. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is an important coenzyme participating in energy-producing processes and passage across cell membranes. Coenzymes often contain vitamins as part of their structure. Calcium and magnesium ions are important enzyme activators. There are also many substances that inhibit, or poison, enzymes; cyanide ion is a potent inhibitor in many enzymic processes, as are nerve gases and insecticides.