Crystalline hexokinase, heterophosphatase; method of isolation and properties.

Meyerhof (1) in 1927 obtained an "activator" from yeast which restored to aged muscle juice its lost ability to ferment glucose. In 1935 yon Euler and Adler (2) found an enzyme in yeast which catalyzed the transfer of phosphorus from adenosine triphosphate to hexoses. They named the enzyme "heterophosphatese." Meyerhof (3) then established that his "activator" of 1927, which he renamed "hexokinase" had the same enzymatic property as yon Euler s heterophosphatese." Colowick and Kalckar (4) in 1941 showed that hexokinase catalyzes the transfer of one phosphate group from adenosine triphosphate to glucose with the liberation of one hydrogen equivalent of acid. The reaction is represented as follows: