The Development of Enzyme Catalytic Efficiency: An Experimental Approach

Enzymes are formidably efficient catalysts that mediate specific hemical transformations at rates rare-ly approached by even the best of man-made catalytic assemblies. From one angle, the challenge for the phys-ical-organic hemist is to try to delineate the reaction mechanism and to understand the chemical and phys-ical origins of the large rate enhancements hat we observe. From a more biological viewpoint, however, the problem is to understand how, over evolutionary time, enzymes have become so effective. These two questions are related, of course, and if we could trace the development of catalytic efficiency, we should be better able to understand the nature of enzyme catalysis as we find it today. In this paper, we outline the first steps of an attempt o monitor the improve-