Evolution
These cholinesterase inhibitors were first synthesized
from 1947-19513,
providing two hypotheses for the high activity of phosphotriesterase:
- the natural substrate for phosphotriesterase will be
shown to have structural similarity to these phosphotriesters when it is
discovered
- phosphotriesterase is a result of transformation of an
existing enzyme to one with altered specificity and reactivity1
- enzymes that perform their catalytic function at or near
the diffusion-controlled regime are expected to be at the end of their
evolutionary development, implying that this enzyme evolved over only 50
years