Enzymes penicillin acyl transferase

When H2O deacetylates the acyl-enzyme, phenylacetic acid is formed. When nucleophiles other than H2O deacylate the acyl-enzyme, a new condensation product, in this case phenylacetyl-O-R or phenylacetyl-NH-R is formed. By definition the hydrolysis of these condensation products can be catalyzed by the same enzyme that catalyzes their formation in equation 10.1. Thus, when the acyl-enzyme is formed from phenylacetyl-glycine or phenylacetyl-O-Me, this gives rise to an alternative process to produce Penicillin G, in addition to the thermodynamically controlled (= equilibrium controlled) condensation of phenylacetic acid and 6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA). This reaction that involves an activated side chain is a kinetically controlled (= rate controlled) process where the hydrolase acts as a transferase (Kasche, 1986 1989). 

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