text: the commercial use of enzymes (proteases) in detergents? i've been doing research on this topic but didn't find exactly what i was looking for! could you guys help! plz tx i don't know how extensive your research should be, but i can tell you the principle of how this works. the name protease already give you a lot of hint, protease is biological enzyme that catalyse the hydrolysis of proteins, the protein comes from the food we eat, say like your white shirt got splattered with some sauce with some meat extract, this stains will be difficult to remove, by degrading the protein within the stains will make the stain easier to be removed. how does protease catalyse hydrolsis of protein?   for example a serine protease in our clotting activating factors, such enzyem uses its hydroxyl group of its serine residue (the residue of serine amino acid contains a hydroxyl group,) with the lone pair of electron on the oxygen atom of the hydroxyl group, it can make neucleophilic attack on the peptide bond carbon atom, as a result the peptide bond is broken, and as you know proteins are made of chains of amino acid connected by peptide bond, thus hydrolysis occurs, i can't give you any more detail of how this mechanism works because i am feeling spleepy right now, good luck any way zzzzzzzzzzzzz