Zinc Metalloenzymes: Characteristics and Significance in Biology and Medicine

Abstract

The modes of approach that serve as guidelines to the discovery, isolation, and characterization of metalloproteins and metalloenzymes are presented. Metalloenzymes offer unique features which allow an approach to the mechanism of enzyme action in a manner that differs qualitatively from that allowed in nonmetalloenzymes. The study of zinc metalloenzymes has played a major role in the elucidation of these general principles. Bovine pancreatic carboxypeptidase, yeast and mammalian alcohol dehydrogenases, and E. coli alkaline phosphatase—all zinc metalloenzymes—not only illustrate these features but also demonstrate the role that zinc contributes to generating their characteristic biologic activity. The pertinence of these zinc-dependent biologic systems to physiologic processes and their implications towards definition and treatment of conditions arising in human disease are discussed.