Lysozyme

Literature References: Mol wt about 14,400 ± 100. Mucolytic enzyme with antibiotic properties, first discovered by A. Fleming: Proc. Roy. Soc. London 93B, 306 (1922). Found in tears, nasal mucus, milk, saliva, blood serum, in a great number of tissues and secretions of different animals, vertebrates and invertebrates, in egg white, in some molds, and in the latex of different plants. Isoln from egg white: Alderton et al., J. Biol. Chem. 157, 43 (1945); Alderton, Fevold, ibid. 164, 1 (1946); Biochem. Prep. 1, 67 (1949); Sophianopoulos et al., J. Biol. Chem. 237, 1107 (1962); from Ficus latex: Meyer et al., ibid. 163, 733 (1946). Structure consists of a single polypeptide chain of 129 amino acid subunits of 20 different kinds cross-linked by four disulfide bridges. Chromatographic studies: Goncalves et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 60, 171 (1956); King, Craig, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 80, 3366 (1958). Complete amino acid sequence of egg white lysozyme: Jolles et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta 78, 668 (1963); Canfield, J. Biol. Chem. 238, 2698 (1963). Synthetic studies of egg white lysozyme: L. E. Barston et al. in Chemistry and Biology of Peptides, Proc. 3rd Am. Peptide Symp., J. Meienhofer, Ed. (Ann Arbor Science Publishers, Inc., Michigan, 1972) pp 231-233; J. J. Sharp et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 95, 6097 (1973). Three dimensional structure: Blake et al., Nature 206, 757 (1965); North, Sci. J. 2(11), 55 (1966); Phillips, Sci. Am. 215, 78 (Nov. 1966); Blake et al., Proc. Roy. Soc. London 167B, 365 (1967). Primary chemical structure and tentative complete sequence of human milk lysozyme: Jolles, Jolles, Helv. Chim. Acta 52, 2671 (1969). Complete primary structure of human milk lysozyme and comparison with lysozymes of various origins: eidem, ibid. 54, 2668 (1971). Dissolves bacterial cell wall mucopolysaccharides by hydrolyzing the b-(1®4) linkages between N-acetyl-D-muramic acid and 2-acetylamino-2-deoxy-D-glucose residues. Also acts on chitin. Reviews: Salton, Bacteriol. Rev. 21, 82 (1957); Acker, Hartsell, Sci. Am. 202, 132 (June 1960); Jolles, "Lysozyme" in P. D. Boyer, H. Lardy, K. Myrback, The Enzymes vol. 4, (Academic Press, New York, 2nd ed., 1960) pp 431-445; idem, Angew. Chem. 76, 20 (1964); Raftery, Dahlquist, Fortschr. Chem. Org. Naturst. 27, 340 (1969); Hamaguchi, Hayashi, "Lysozyme" in Proteins, Structure and Function vol. 1, M. Funatsu et al., Eds. (Kodansha, Tokyo, Wiley, New York, 1972) pp 85-222. Book: Lysozyme, E. F. Osserman et al., Eds. (Academic Press, New York, 1974).