Enzymatic catalysis relies on stereoelectronic complementarity between the enzyme's active site and the substrate's transition state. A simple model system illustrating this tenet has now been devised. The bowl-to-bowl inversion of corannulene, catalysed inside the cavity of a synthetic receptor by an induced-fit mechanism, arises from ground-state destabilization combined with transition-state stabilization.
- Michal Juríček
- Nathan L. Strutt
- Jay S. Siegel
