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''.
Author(s): P. Joliès (auth.), Prof. Dr. P. Jollès (eds.)
Series: Experientia Supplementum 75
Publisher: Birkhäuser Basel
Year: 1995
Language: English
Pages: 440
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
