ABSTRACT
Enzymes are extremely powerful catalysts and their proficiency and diversity typically exceeds the performance of man-made chemical catalysts that are commonly used in industrial chemistry. An impressive example for the stunning efficiency of enzymes is provided by orotidine 50-phosphate decarboxylase. The uncatalyzed reaction has a half-life of 78 million years, whereas the half-life of the catalyzed reaction is only 18msec. This corresponds to a rate acceleration (kcat=kuncat) of 1.4 1017 (1).
