| dc.description.abstract | Enzymes are the lead actors in the drama of life. Without these molecular
machines the genetic information stored in DNA is worthless. With rising attention
to the fashionable fields like molecular biology, genetic engineering, and biotechnology,
the techniques to manipulate DNA have occupied center stage. Being
popular, many concepts of molecular biology/genetic engineering are now
introduced to undergraduates. Unfortunately, this has happened at the cost of other
fundamental facets of biology, including enzymology. In the excitement to collate
volumes of data for Systems Biology (and the various “Omics” fashions), the beauty
and vigor of careful analysis – one enzyme at a time – is neglected. It is an
intellectual challenge to assay individual enzymes while avoiding complications
due to others – an almost forgotten activity in modern biology. Many in the present
generation assume that performing one standard assay will tell you everything about
that enzyme. While biochemists spent lifetimes on a single native enzyme, the notion
today is that one can characterize a mutant in the morning! Over the last three
decades devoted enzymologists have become a rare breed. Many Biology teaching
programs have expanded in the areas of molecular and cellular biology while they
manage with a makeshift enzymology instructor. New students who are attracted to
the study of enzymes do exist, but they find themselves in a very bleak teaching
environment. Not surprisingly their numbers are dwindling. Reservoirs that are not
replenished may soon run dry. | en_US |
