Enzyme Fingerprints by Fluorogenic and Chromogenic Substrate Arrays We would like to thank Prof. R. Furstoss and Dr. A. Archelas at the Faculté des Sciences de Luminy, Marseille, France, for providing a sample of Aspergillus niger EH, and Dr. C. Weijers at the Department of Food Technology and Nutrition Sciences, Wageningen University, the Netherlands, for providing a sample of Rhodotorula glutinis EH. This work was supported by the University of Bern, the European COST program (Action D12), the Swiss Office Fédéral de l'Education et de la Science, Protéus SA (Nîmes, France), the Ministero della Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (MURST), and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) (Roma). P.C. gratefully acknowledges Merck for generous financial support from a 2000 ADP Chemistry Award.

Abstract

Differentiation between different enzymes within one class is possible by plotting the relative reaction rates of an enzyme with a series of chromogenic or fluorogenic enzyme substrates as an array of gray-scale squares (see scheme). The characteristic enzyme fingerprints obtained for hydrolytic enzymes such as lipases, esterases, amidases, and epoxide hydrolases are reproducible and enzyme specific. Such fingerprints may be used in quality controls, batch identification, and as screening tools in enzyme discovery programs.