Electrostatic fields in the active sites of lysozymes

Considerable experimental evidence is in support of several aspects of the mechanism that has been proposed for the catalytic activity of lysozyme. However, the enzymatically catalyzed hydrolysis of polysaccharides proceeds over 5 orders of magnitude faster than that of model compounds that mimic the configuration of the substrate in the active site of the enzyme. Although several possible explanations for this rate enhancement have been discussed elsewhere, a definitive mechanism has not emerged. Here we report striking results obtained by classical electrodynamics, which suggest that bond breakage and the consequent separation of charge in lysozyme is promoted by a large electrostatic field across the active site cleft, produced in part by a very asymmetric distribution of charged residues on the enzyme surface. Lysozymes unrelated in amino acid sequence have similar distributions of charged residues and electric fields. The results reported here suggest that the electrostatic component of the rate enhancement is greater than 9 kcal.mol-1. Thus, electrostatic interactions may play a more important role in the enzymatic mechanism than has generally been appreciated.