What is the Impact of Mutating Histidine Residues?
Mutating histidine residues in enzyme active sites can lead to a significant loss of catalytic activity. This is because histidine often plays a critical role in substrate binding and the catalytic mechanism. For instance, replacing histidine with another amino acid like alanine can disrupt the enzyme's ability to stabilize transition states or participate in proton transfer, leading to reduced efficiency or complete inactivation of the enzyme.
