Relationship between chemical structure and biological activity of hen egg-white lysozyme and lysozymes of different species

Abstract

Fleming discovered an enzyme which he called lysozyme; it had ‘the power of rapidly dissolving certain bacteria, which is possessed by many animal and vegetable tissues and secretions and to a very marked degree by egg-white' (Fleming 1922). Hen egg-white lysozyme was crystallized by Abraham & Robinson in 1937; its homogeneity was verified by different chromatographic and physical methods, which have recently been reviewed (Jollès, P. 1960, 1964). Since 1958, Jollès and others have been engaged in elucidating the primary structure; they published a preliminary formula in 1961 (Jollès, J. & Jollès, P. 1961), followed in 1963 by a detailed study (Jollès, J., Jauregui-Adell, Bernier & Jollès, P. 1963); their structure differed slightly from that of Canfield (1963). The positions of the four disulphide bonds were also established (see table 1), and the complete formula is indicated in figure 1.