Bacillus alcalophilus AX2000으로부터 xylanase를 정제한 후 효소의 활성부위를 조사하기 위하여 여러 가지 화학수식제를 사용하여 효소활성의 저해도를 측정하였다. 여러 가지 화학 수식제 중에서 carbodiimide와 N-bromosuccinimide가 효소 활성을 완전히 저해시켜 glutamic acid또는 aspartic acid 잔기와 tryptophan 잔기가 효소의 활성부위에 관여하리라 추측되었다. 각각의 경우에 효소 실활은 수식제의 첨가농도에 따라 pseudo first-order kinetics 양식을 보여주었으며, carbodiimide와 N-bromosuccinimide는 각각 비경쟁적 저해와 경쟁적 저해방식을 나타내었다. 기질첨가에 의한 효소활성 보호실험을 통하여 tryptophan 잔기가 기질결합부위라 판단 되었다. 효소 실활속도의 분석에 의해 효소활성에는 2개의 glutamic acid 또는 aspartic acid 잔기와 1개의 tryptophan 잔기가 관여하는 것으로 나타났다.
The purified xylanase from Bacillus alcalophilus AX2000 was modified with various chemical modifiers to determine amino acid residues in the active site of the enzyme. Treatment of the enzyme with group-specific reagents such as carbodiimide or N-bromosuccinimide resulted in complete loss of enzyme activity. These results suggested that these reagents reacted with glutamic acid or aspartic acid and tryptophan residues located at or near the active site. In each case, inactivation was performed by pseudo first-order kinetics. Inhibition of enzyme activity by carbodiimide and N-bromosuccinimide showed non-competitive and competitive inhibition type, respectively. Addition of xylan to the enzyme solution containing N-bromosuccinimide prevented the inactivation, indicating the presence of tryptophan at the substrate binding site. Analysis of kinetics for inactivation showed that the loss of enzyme activity was due to modification of two glutamic acid or aspartic acid residues and single tryptophan residue.
