title: A three dimensional model of the digestion of peptidoglycan by lysozyme.
abstract: The digestion of single peptidoglycan chains of the recently proposed conformation (Formanek et al., 1974) can be described with the same enzymatic mechanism as proposed by Phillips for a hexasaccharide consisting of alternating N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylmuramic acid residues (Phillips, 1966). It is shown by model building, that in a peptidoglycan lysozyme complex the peptide chains do not exhibit any sterical hindrance. The digestion of the peptidoglycan sacculus by lysozyme may occur at latice defects of its paracrystalline structure. A slit of about 30 A length and 10--15 A width between peptidoglycan micells may be sufficient for the attachment of lysozyme.
mesh_terms: D000117:Acetylglucosamine; D002686:Chitin; D006020:Glycopeptides / Q000378:metabolism; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D009112:Muramic Acids; D009113:Muramidase / Q000378:metabolism*; D010457:Peptidoglycan / Q000378:metabolism*; D011487:Protein Conformation
chemical_list: D006020:Glycopeptides; D009112:Muramic Acids; D010457:Peptidoglycan; D002686:Chitin; D009113:Muramidase; D000117:Acetylglucosamine