Question

Would extracellular enzymes make bacteria more pathogenic?  Why?

Answer 1

Yes, extracellular enzymes make bacteria more pathogenic.

Many exoenzymes are used as the virulence factors. Both the bacterial and fungal pathogens can able to use exoenzymes as a primary mechanism with which to cause disease. The metabolic activity of the exoenzymes permits the bacterium to invade host organisms by breaking down the host cell’s defensive outer layers or by necrotizing body tissues of larger organisms. The exoenzyme production can be considered important to survival and therefore, it is evolutionary selected for among bacteria.