Three decades of the class A beta-lactamase acyl-enzyme

The discovery that the mechanism of beta-lactam hydrolysis catalyzed by the class A (active site serine-dependent) beta-lactamases proceeds via an acyl-enzyme intermediate was made thirty years ago. Since this discovery, the active site circumstance that enables acylation of the active site serine and further enables hydrolytic deacylation of the acyl-serine intermediate, has received extraordinary scrutiny. The justification for this scrutiny is the direct relevance of the beta-lactamases to the manifestation of bacterial resistance to the beta-lactam antibiotics, and the subsequent (to the discovery of the beta-lactamase acyl-enzyme) recognition of the direct evolutionary relationship between the serine beta-lactamase acyl-enzyme, and the penicillin binding protein acyl-enzyme that is key to beta-lactam antibiotic activity. This short review describes the early events leading to the recognition that serine beta-lactamase catalysis proceeds via an acyl-enzyme intermediate, and summarizes several of the key mechanistic studies--including infrared spectroscopy, cryoenzymology, beta-lactam design, and x-ray crystallography--that have been exploited to understand this pivotal catalytic intermediate.