Hevamine, a chitinase from the rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis, cleaves peptidoglycan between the C-1 of N-acetylglucosamine and C-4 of N-acetylmuramic acid and therefore is not a lysozyme

Hevamine is a chitinase from the rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis and belongs to the family 18 glycosyl hydrolases. In this paper the cleavage specificity of hevamine for peptidoglycan was studied by HPLC and mass-spectrometry analysis of enzymatic digests. The results clearly showed that the enzyme cleaves between the C-1 of a N-acetylglucosamine and the C-4 of a N-acetylmuramate residue. This means that hevamine, and very likely also other family 18 glycosyl hydrolases which cleave peptidoglycan, cannot be classified as lysozymes. (C) 1997 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.