ABSTRACT
Proteolytic enzymes are of particular importance to the food scientist. Pepsin, trypsin, chymotrypsin, and the carboxypeptidases and aminopeptidases are responsible for hydrolysis of ingested proteins to amino acids in the digestive tract of humans. There are proteolytic enzymes in the phagocytic cells of blood which are responsible for hydrolyzing foreign proteins. The proteolytic enzymes are by far the most important group of enzymes in the food processing industry. The carboxyl group is involved in binding and properly orienting the substrate in the active site of the enzyme. The general features of catalysis by this group of enzymes are identical; only the specific groups involved in binding of substrate are different, which results in the different specificities. Most of the proteolytic enzymes hydrolyze other types of bonds than just the peptide bond. Even some non-proteolytic enzymes such as phosphoglucomutase and alkaline phosphatase have essential seryl residues in their active sites.
