Enzyme catalysis at single-molecule level

摘要

Enzyme activity lays the foundation for the biochemical processes since the origin of life [1,2], and understanding the mechanism and kinetics of enzyme reactions is very important for the study of life science and bioengineering. The ensemble-averaged experiments are unable to characterize the transient intermediates or various specific steps during the catalytic cycle of enzymes, which brings a challenge to reveal enzyme-catalytic mechanisms. Now, in the article published in the Nature Catalysis, Prof. Wenjing Hong, Prof.Baishan Fang and Prof. Binju Wang in Xiamen University employed a scanning tunneling microscope-break junction technique (STM-BJ) with a time resolution of milli-second to probe the stepwise reaction dynamics of the catalytic cycle at the single-enzyme leve.