MEDIUM EFFECTS IN ENZYME SPECIFICITY

It is shown that chymotrypsin loses its hydrophobic selectivity in lipophilic media and in concentrated salt solutions has a selectivity higher than in water, in accordance with the equation developed for quantitative description of these changes. The results agree with the assumption that the chymotrypsin specificity against nonpolar substrates and inhibitors is determined by their partition between the enzyme active site microphase and the reaction medium, analogously to the partition of these compounds in the octanol-water model system.