The STRENDA Commission aims are as follows:

    • To establish standards of reporting enzyme data, to allow a full understanding of the conditions under which they were obtained. It is hoped that such standards will become required by the major scientific journals and that they will be fully documented in those databases, such as BRENDA and SABIO-RK related to organisms and enzyme groups that compile enzyme activity and kinetic data.

      A final document that provides a check-list of information that should be included when enzyme kinetic data are reported is available for further discussion and comment. Please send you suggestions to the STRENDA co-ordination whose address is given here.

    • To propose uniform assay standards for the standardization of data for single enzymes and groups of enzymes. Clearly the conditions under which an enzyme operates will depend on the organism and organelle in which it occurs. To take an extreme example, the physiological temperature at which an enzyme operates in a mammal may have little relevance to the behaviour of the corresponding enzyme in a hyperthermophile. On the other hand, using very different assay conditions for assaying the forward and reverse reactions catalysed by the same enzyme may mean that valuable thermodynamic data are lost.

The STRENDA Commission recognizes that any recommendations on the standardization of experimental conditions will require broad discussions within the scientific community. These must eventually lead to the formulation of commonly acceptable codes of “good laboratory practice” in terms of comparability of the results of functional enzyme characterization. Nearly ten years ago, a similar world-wide movement among electrophysiologists led to publication of an agreement on definite representation of transmembrane currents (Science, 1992, 258:873-874; PMID: 1439795). We believe that further delay addressing these issues would be a disservice to the community.

STRENDA is very interested in cooperating with other standardization initiatives in pertinent subjects. Timely cooperation between the various initiatives is desirable to avoid duplication of effort and diversity of recommendations made by different groups.