Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Hydrolytic enzymes break down protein, carbohydrate, and fat molecules into their simplest units. The hydrolysis of polymers by hydrolytic enzymes results in free monomers. During hydrolysis (hydro-,"water";lysis-,"break") a water molecule is added to the polymer and cleaves the covalent bond holding the two monomers. The reverse of a hydrolysis reaction is a condensation reaction. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.