Lysozymes: Model Enzymes In Biochemistry And Biology (experientia Supplementum)

More than seventy years after Fleming's discovery of lysozyme, this enzyme continues to play a crucial role as a model enzyme in protein chemistry, enzymology, crystallography, molecular biology and genetics, immunology and also in evolutionary biology. The classical representative of this widespread enzyme family is the hen egg-white lysozyme. Chicken (c)-type lysozymes have also been characterized in many other animals including mammals, reptiles and invertebrates. Besides this c-type lysozyme, other distinct types, differing on the basis of structural, catalytic and immunological critera, have been described as well, these in birds, phages, bacteria, fungi, invertebrates and plants. The specificity, however, of all these enzymes is the same: they cleave a ?-glycosidic bond between the C-1 of N-acetylmuramic acid and the C-4 of N-acetylglucosamine of the bacterial peptidoglycan. In this volume special emphasis is placed on results obtained during the last ten years. Lysozymes are by no means merely defence or, in certain cases, digestion enzymes. In fact, peptidoglycan fragments released by the lytic action of this enzyme family can trigger the synthesis of immunostimulating or antibacterial substances, and a host of other unexpected, biological reactions may be provoked by lysozymes as well. As Fleming has prophesized: ''We shall hear more about lysozyme''. Content: Front Matter....Pages i-viii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 From the discovery of lysozyme to the characterization of several lysozyme families....Pages 3-5 Front Matter....Pages 7-7 Animal lysozymes c and g: An overview....Pages 9-31 Front Matter....Pages 33-33 Phage lysozymes....Pages 35-64 Bacterial lysozymes....Pages 65-74 Plant lysozymes....Pages 75-86 Insect lysozymes....Pages 87-102 Front Matter....Pages 103-103 Lysozyme Substrates....Pages 105-110 Simulations of lysozyme: Internal motions and the reaction mechanism....Pages 111-141 Folding of lysozyme....Pages 143-161 Engineering of lysozyme....Pages 163-181 Front Matter....Pages 183-183 Lysozyme: A model enzyme in protein crystallography....Pages 185-222 Front Matter....Pages 223-223 Isolation and characterization of vertebrate lysozyme genes....Pages 225-241 Lysozyme gene expression and regulation....Pages 243-257 Front Matter....Pages 259-259 Polyclonal antisera elicited by lysozymes: Insights into antigenic structure and evolution....Pages 261-276 Molecular recognition of lysozyme by monoclonal antibodies....Pages 277-300 The crystal structures of complexes formed between lysozyme and antibody fragments....Pages 301-319 Front Matter....Pages 321-321 Adaptive evolution of lysozyme: Changes in amino acid sequence, regulation of expression and gene number....Pages 323-345 Molecular evolution of ruminant lysozymes....Pages 347-361 Front Matter....Pages 363-363 α-Lactalbumins and lysozymes....Pages 365-409 Evidence for lysozyme-type mechanism of hydrolysis in xylanases....Pages 411-423 Front Matter....Pages 363-363 Lytic transglycosylases....Pages 425-429 Front Matter....Pages 431-431 Pharmacological aspects and therapeutic applications of lysozymes....Pages 433-449 Back Matter....Pages 451-457