History of X-ray crystallography Updated +Created
Lysozyme Updated +Created
Breaks up peptidoglycan present in the bacterial cell wall, which is thicker in Gram-positive bacteria, which is what this enzyme seems to target.
Part of the inate immune system.
It is present on basically everything that mammals and birds excrete, and it kills bacteria, both of which are reasons why it was discovered relatively early on.
Lysozyme structure resolution (1965) Updated +Created
With X-ray crystallography by David Chilton Phillips. The second protein to be resolved fter after myoglobin, and the first enzyme.
Phillips also published a lower resolution (6angstrom) of the enzyme-inhibitor complexes at about the same time: Structure of Some Crystalline Lysozyme-Inhibitor Complexes Determined by X-Ray Analysis At 6 Å Resolution (1965). The point of doing this is that it points out the active site of the enzyme.