Enzyme co-localisation: Mechanisms and benefits

Abstract

Co-localising enzymes can drastically affect their properties, such as stability, specificity, and activity, thus influencing reaction kinetics. In this review, we present a brief overview of the main methods developed for enzyme immobilisation, co-localisation, and conjugation and discuss how and why they affect the enzyme properties. We also describe the effects emerging from bringing two sequential enzymes of a cascade reaction together, particularly if and when it speeds up reaction velocity. Furthermore, we discuss enzyme compartmentalisation, or clustering of several enzymes of a cascade, and present theoretical approaches developed to optimise synthetic enzyme clusters. We also point out the plenitude of open questions, which exist despite the enormous research effort channelled into understanding enzyme co-localisation.