Endo-N-acetylmuramidases (muramidases) are lysozymes (also referred to as peptidoglycan hydrolases) that degrade bacterial cell walls by catalyzing the hydrolysis of 1,4-beta-linkages between N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residues. This family of muramidases contains a glycosyl hydrolase family 25 (GH25) catalytic domain and is found in bacteria, fungi, slime molds, round worms, protozoans and bacteriophages. The bacteriophage members are referred to as endolysins which are involved in lysing the host cell at the end of the replication cycle to allow release of mature phage particles. Endolysins are typically modular enzymes consisting of a catalytically active domain that hydrolyzes the peptidoglycan cell wall and a cell wall-binding domain that anchors the protein to the cell wall. Endolysins generally have narrow substrate specificities with either intra-species or intra-genus bacteriolytic activity.

Glycosyl hydrolases family 25.

Lyc muramidase is an autolytic lysozyme (autolysin) from Clostridium acetobutylicum encoded by the lyc gene. Lyc has a glycosyl hydrolase family 25 (GH25) catalytic domain. Endo-N-acetylmuramidases are lysozymes (also referred to as peptidoglycan hydrolases) that degrade bacterial cell walls by catalyzing the hydrolysis of 1,4-beta-linkages between N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residues.

The LytC lysozyme of Streptococcus pneumoniae is a bacterial cell wall hydrolase that cleaves the beta1-4-glycosydic bond located between the N-acetylmuramoyl-N-glucosaminyl residues of the cell wall polysaccharide chains. LytC is composed of a C-terminal glycosyl hydrolase family 25 (GH25) domain and an N-terminal choline-binding module (CBM) consisting of eleven homologous repeats that specifically recognizes the choline residues of pneumococcal lipoteichoic and teichoic acids. This domain arrangement is the reverse of the major pneumococcal autolysin, LytA, and the CPL-1-like lytic enzymes of the pneumococcal bacteriophages, in which the CBM (consisting of six repeats) is at the C-terminus. This model represents the C-terminal catalytic domain of the LytC-like enzymes.

CH-type (Chalaropsis-type) lysozymes represent one of four functionally-defined classes of peptidoglycan hydrolases (also referred to as endo-N-acetylmuramidases) that cleave bacterial cell wall peptidoglycans. CH-type lysozymes exhibit both lysozyme (acetylmuramidase) and diacetylmuramidase activity. The first member of this family to be described was a muramidase from the fungus Chalaropsis. However, a majority of the CH-type lysozymes are found in bacteriophages and Gram-positive bacteria such as Streptomyces and Clostridium. CH-type lysozymes have a single glycosyl hydrolase family 25 (GH25) domain with an unusual beta/alpha-barrel fold in which the last strand of the barrel is antiparallel to strands beta7 and beta1. Most CH-type lysozymes appear to lack the cell wall-binding domain found in other GH25 muramidases.