ENZYME COMPLEXES AND COMPLEX ENZYMES 



HENRY R. MAHLER,* Institute for Enzyme Research, University of 



Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 



"During the past ten years a good deal of successful effort 

 has been expended on the elucidation of the properties, the 

 structure, and the biochemical function of isolated, carefully 

 fractionated subcellular particulates." This was to be the 

 opening sentence, the springboard of my presentation whence 

 I was to launch myself directly into the topics suggested and 

 summarized by my title. But when I paused after putting this 

 first sentence on paper I realized that it in itself could serve as 

 the summary of one of the main currents in our contemporary 

 biochemical thinking and as such deserved at least a passing 

 comment. 



The existence of practical, rapid, and reproducible methods 

 for the separation of the various formed elements of the cell, 

 relatively free from each other and of the soluble cytoplasmic 

 constituents, is basic to many of our experiments and to much 

 of our hypothesizing. Yet these methods barely existed ten years 

 ago. The idea that a large number of enzymes complete with 

 all their coenzymes and cofactors, acting jointly and con- 



* Present address: Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, 

 Bloomington. 



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