h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Enzymes in the Service of Man - A3159001
Author: radioactiveBIGAL1 - on a different planet. Saboteur of Boring and Banal Conversation. Originator of the famed Glowing Pickle. - U723247

This was originally an Entry by Panther Lady.

I discovered it when I was considering writing a similar Entry, as I was teaching an Enzymes lesson to an 'Access to Higher Education' class.

It was a difficult Entry to write as it covers an awful lot of ground, some areas in which I am more expert than others; and there';s bound to be some problems/errors. In particular, I want to sharpen up the section on 'Lactose Intolerance'. The section on 'Synthesis of Drugs' was also very difficult as it involved using highly technical nomenclature. I may well have to simplify this a bit.

I am submitting this relatively early to PR as I only have 1 week of half-term to 'get it out of the way', and I am hoping Peers will help me spot the deficiencies relatively quickly.

I should have said 'attempted Entry' by PL as she never managed to get it beyond PS. I am now submitting it as a joint Entry.

Great entry ... just a some small things...

origins not origens and can you really name a specific drug and manufacturer?

There's an alternative theory to the Lock and Key, it's been 20 years since I did this so I'd need to get my hands on a copy Stryer to check.

In pharma, enzyme analogues are also used to increase penicillin efficacy by blocking the active sites of beta lactamase which is a particular nuisance in both the large scale penicillin production and once the drug is in the patient. The largest broad spectrum antibiotic usingthis method is Augmentin marketed by GSK (this one is off patent almost everywhere so it's probably safe to mention, the generic is called co-amoxyclav, marketed by Rambaxy in India).

I also forgot to say that PL's original Entry was called 'Applications of Enzymes in Industry and Medicine' and it's at A1125721, if anyone wants to compare.

I'm not too happy with how I've done the formatting because it goes:

Sub-heading: 'Putting Enzymes to Work', then:
Heading: 'Production of Food', then several
Sub-Headings, then

Heading: 'Use in Medicine', then several

Sub-Headings, etc.

It's the first sub-heading that doesn't look right. Perhaps it should be a full Heading. Actually, I'd like to Centre it to distinguish it from the full Heading below, but don't know how.

doesn't the ....... work in Guide ML?

I don't know. I'll try it.

No, it didn't. I tried both possible spellings for 'Centre' as well but, as you can see, it's just put 'Centre' in front of the Heading.

I'll leave it like that for the time being in the hope that s'body can tell me how to correct it.

Incidentally, the 'lock and key' model is the only one taught at the levels I teach, so I didn't want to complicate things for other readers (who're largely at the same level) by postulating other models.

Good Find!!!

try ... that should work...

Black Cheetah -

As I said BC, I did try that but it didn't work (Did you mean, though, with the absence of . I'll try that).

MB, I've tried to incorporate what you said about the penicillinase inhibitorm, but I'm not sure that it fits in too easily as it is an inhibitor - not a direct therapeutical use of an enzyme. Have a read and see what you think.

That worked!

BC

Looks good, we've both learned about the Centre/Center code, I've been trying to do that on my personal page for ages without success!

Yeah Augmentin is a funny one it's more sacrificial blocking of active sites by a less efficatious antibiotic to leave amoxycillin intact therefore increasing relative potency for the same dose.

I could probably do an entire article on that alone but would probably get "sin binned" for disclosure of intellectual property"

There's also enzymatic cleavage of the penicillin side chain using "separase" ( I know, it's a generic name) to give the 6-aminopenillanic acid nucleus, pharma companies then use this to make a multitude of Grm +ve antibiotics by adding synthetic side chains (not my end of the business so I've no knowledge of the enzymes used. Wouldn't surprise me though if it was called "Joinase" by industry boffins!).

Wow, this is beautiful written.

dude huge improvent! Thank you!

x

Gen, glad you like it. As I said in thre bit we have to write when submitting it for PR, it was difficult to write. This is because it covers such a wide range. There are still aspects that I'm not 100% happy with, and I keep returning to it to 'tickle it' a bit. However, we'll see what the Peers say.

In answer to your question earlier: yes, I teach Chemistry AS and A2 in a school and Biology on an 'Access to Higher Education' course in a College. I haven't always been a teacher though. I was previously a Senior Scientist with the Health Service working on virus vaccine design.

no problem...

Black Cheetah -

I've just improved the section on 'Drug Mnufacture' - I hope!

.... and also the section on 'Lactose Intolerance'.

If you want to centre a header, you should use:

and

But I really suggest you don't centre your headers, as it is not the standard for edited entries.

A huge amount of this entry seems to be about the processes of beer making and bread making using yeast. The bread making side of this well-covered in the guide in Frenchbean's excellent entries A2791820 THe History of Bread Yeast and A1325260 Real Bread-Making. There's not much point in you repeating it all.

There's something odd about the formatting of this entry. You've a carriage return after "at the end of the reaction." and this is coming out in the entry. I don't understand why. GuideML is supposed to ignore all carriage returns in your text. You can probably fix it by deleting the character after "reaction."

The paragraph on Lock and Key is merely a reworded repeat of the previous paragraph.

I wouldn't describe fungi as a group of plants. They're normally considered a separate phylum.

Typos:

enymes.Without --> enzymes. Without
chemisry --> chemistry
hundreds of different enzyme --> hundreds of different enzymes
at the beginning iof --> at the beginning of
enzymes have a particular 3-dimensional shape, called its tertiary structure --> each enzyme has a particular 3-dimensional shape, called its tertiary structure
the name of the enzymes is less informative --> the name of the enzyme is less informative
W.Kuhne --> W Kuhne
(i.e. in the --> (ie in the
at about 4000 B.C. --> in about 4000 BC.
About 1000 years later --> About 1,000 years later

Got to go! I'll have a look at the rest of this later.

So, how is one supposed to distinguish a section which has several sub-headers belonging to it?