Abstract
I MUST thank Dr. Richter1 for raising the fascinating problem of whether enzymes act by initiating chain reactions. If this is correct, the value which I calculated2 for the number of hydrogen peroxide molecules destroyed by a catalase molecule per second, namely, about 105, retains its biological significance, but the enzyme surface is far less active than I supposed. The view that oxidative enzymes in general initiate chain reactions was put forward by Haber and Willsttter.3 I propose to examine this view, but only some of the arguments which I shall bring against it would be valid if catalase were unique among enzymes in starting a chain reaction. This is, however, very unlikely. Peroxidase was shown by Kuhn, Hand, and Florkin4 to have the same degree of activity per molecule per second, and a very similar active hæmatin grouping.
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HALDANE, J. Chain Reactions in Enzymatic Catalysis. Nature 130, 61 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130061a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130061a0
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