The Roles of Acids and Bases in Enzyme Catalysis

Many organic reactions are catalyzed by strong acids or bases that protonate or deprotonate neutral reactants leading to reactive cations or anions that proceed to products. In enzyme reactions, only weak acids and bases are available to hydrogen bond to reactants and to transfer protons in response to developing charges. Understanding this difference goes a long way toward applying organic concepts to the mechanisms of bioorganic chemistry. (Contains 1 note and 2 schemes/figures.)