Abstract:
This chapter provides an introduction to the enzyme adenylosuccinate
synthetase which forms the theme of the studies reported in this thesis. This is
followed by a general description of the life style of the two organisms;
Methanocaldococcus jannaschii, a thermophilic archaea, and Plasmodium
falciparum, a mesophilic parasitic protozoan. The last section of the chapter provides
a comparative account of the properties of mesophilic and thermophilic proteins and
outlines the features of thermozymes that are implicated in thermostability of these
proteins.