Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Macromolecules: Development of Complex Substrates and Investigation of Hydrolysis Rates in Seawater and Sediments

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ABSTRACTOCE-9906089Most organic matter is biologically synthesized in the form of high molecular-weight macromolecules such as proteins, lipid complexes, and polysaccharides, the vast majority eventually being remineralized to carbon dioxide. Very little is known about the enzyme systems that mediate these important decomposition processes. For this reason, the principal investigator proposes to develop a set of substrates that can be used to investigate the rate of hydrolysis and substrate specificities of extracellular enzymes involved in the remineralization of polysaccharides and carbohydrate-containing macromolecules in the marine water column and sediments. It is expected that the macromolecular substrates developed in this project will expand our current ability to examine extracellular enzymatic hydrolysis processes as well as our knowledge of the structure of naturally-occurring organic macromolecules.