- Lyase
In
biochemistry , a lyase is anenzyme that catalyzes the breaking of variouschemical bond s by means other thanhydrolysis andoxidation , often forming a newdouble bond or a new ring structure. For example, an enzyme that catalyzed this reaction would be a lyase:Lyases differ from other enzymes in that they only require one substrate for the reaction in one direction, but two substrates for the reverse reaction.
Nomenclature
Systematic names are formed as "substrate group" lysase." Common names include
decarboxylase ,dehydratase ,aldolase , etc. When the reverse reaction is more important,synthase may be used in the name.Classification
Lysases are classified as EC 4 in the
EC number classification of enzymes. Lyases can be further classified into seven subclasses:
* includes lyases that cleave carbon-carbon bonds, such asdecarboxylase s (EC 4.1.1),aldehyde lyases (EC 4.1.2), oxo acid lyases(EC 4.1.3) and others (EC 4.1.99)
* includes lyases that cleave carbon-oxygen bonds, such asdehydratase s
* includes lyases that cleave carbon-nitrogen bonds
* includes lyases that cleave carbon-sulfur bonds
* includes lyases that cleave carbon-halide bonds
* includes lyases that cleave phosphorus-oxygen bonds, such asadenylate cyclase andguanylate cyclase
* includes other lyases, such asferrochelatase ee also
* List of EC numbers of enzymes belonging to category EC 4
References
* [http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iubmb/enzyme/EC4/intro.html EC 4 Introduction] from the Department of Chemistry at
Queen Mary, University of London
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