Glucophenylimidazole (PheGlcIm), a tetrahydroimidazopyridine-type inhibitor and 4 H 3 conformer mimic of a glucoside, binds very tightly to a barley -D-glucan glucohydrolase, with a K i constant of 2 ؋ 10 ؊9 M and a ⌬G of 51 kJ mol ؊1 . PheGlcIm binds to the barley -D-glucan glucohydrolase ϳ2 ؋ 10 5 times tighter than laminarin, which is the best non-synthetic ground-state substrate found so far for this enzyme, 10 6 times tighter than 4-nitrophenyl -D-glucopyranoside, and 2 ؋ 10 7 tighter than glucose. The three-dimensional structure of the -D-glucan glucohydrolase with bound PheGlcIm indicates that the complex resembles a hypothetical transition state during the hydrolytic cycle, that the enzyme derives substrate binding energy from the "aglycone" portion of the ligand, and that it also reveals an anti-protonation trajectory for hydrolysis. Continuous electron densities at the 1.6 level form between the three active site residues Asp 95 , His 207 , and Asp 285 , and the C6OH, C7OH, C8OH, and C9OH groups of PheGlcIm. These electron densities correspond to the most favorable interactions in the three-dimensional structure of the -D-glucan glucohydrolase-PheGlcIm complex and indicate atomic distances equal to or less than 2.55 Å. The crystallographic data were corroborated with ab initio molecular orbital calculations. The data indicate that the 4 E conformation of the glucose part of PheGlcIm is critical for tight binding and provide the first evidence for probable substrate distortion during catalysis by this enzyme.