Human trypsin 4 is an unconventional serine protease that possesses an arginine at position 193 in place of the highly conserved glycine. Although this single amino acid substitution does not affect steady-state activity on small synthetic substrates, it has dramatic effects on zymogen activation, interaction with canonical inhibitors, and substrate specificity toward macromolecular substrates. To study the effect of a non-glycine residue at position 193 on the mechanism of the individual enzymatic reaction steps, we expressed wild type human trypsin 4 and its R193G mutant. 4-Methylumbelliferyl 4-guanidinobenzoate has been chosen as a substrate analogue, where deacylation is rate-limiting, and transient kinetic methods were used to monitor the reactions. This experimental system allows for the separation of the individual reaction steps during substrate hydrolysis and the determination of their rate constants dependably. We suggest a refined model for the reaction mechanism, in which acylation is preceded by the reversible formation of the first tetrahedral intermediate. Furthermore, the thermodynamics of these steps were also investigated. The formation of the first tetrahedral intermediate is highly exothermic and accompanied by a large entropy decrease for the wild type enzyme, whereas the signs of the enthalpy and entropy changes are opposite and smaller for the R193G mutant. This difference in the energetic profiles indicates much more extended structural and/or dynamic rearrangements in the equilibrium step of the first tetrahedral intermediate formation in wild type human trypsin 4 than in the R193G mutant enzyme, which may contribute to the biological function of this protease.Trypsin is a prototype of the S1 serine protease family, the largest group of proteases. The residues indispensable for its enzymatic activity, His-57, , are structurally conserved and are referred to collectively as the catalytic triad (1). These residues are located at the active site of the enzyme. As the first step of the catalytic cycle, the enzyme binds the substrate forming the non-covalent Michaelis complex. The hydroxyl oxygen of the catalytic serine makes a nucleophilic attack on the electron-deficient carbonyl carbon of the scissile bond, and a covalent bond is formed. The attacked carbon atom becomes tetrahedrally coordinated; thus this state is called the first tetrahedral intermediate. In the next step, this species breaks down to yield the C-terminal (first) product and the acyl-enzyme. The acylation is followed by deacylation, a mechanistically similar action, in which the acyl-ester bond is attacked by a water molecule that has previously been activated by 3).During the hydrolysis of the scissile bond, tetrahedral intermediates are developed that are stabilized via hydrogen bonding interactions, in which the amido groups of residues Gly-193 and Ser-195 act as H-donors and the developing oxyanion intermediate is the acceptor (4, 5). Despite glycine being the far most convenient amino acid at position 193 for optimal...