Ionic‐strength‐dependent substrate inhibition of the lysis of Micrococcus luteus by hen egg‐white lysozyme

The kinetics of lysis of Micrococcus luteus by hen egg‐white lysozyme in dilute buffer media is characterized by pronounced substrate inhibition. This effect occurs within the complete pH range where lysozyme activity is detectable. The electrostatic potential of the negatively charged cell‐wall proteoglycan increases with decreasing ionic strength, resulting in an enhanced affinity between proteoglycan and lysozyme and probably favouring multipoint substrate attachment. For the lysozyme‐catalyzed hydrolysis of cell‐wall proteoglycan three plausible mechanisms of substrate inhibition can be postulated. Two out of the three models fit our experimental data, the simplest of the two providing the most rigorous information on the kinetic parameters Km, V and Ki. Three graphical methods consistent with the chosen model were applied for preliminary parameter estimation and the constants obtained were compared to those from nonlinear least‐squares analysis. If substrate inhibition is neglected it is shown that serious bias is imposed upon the parameters.