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Name: Ashley
Status: student
Grade: 9-12
Location: VA
Country: USA
Date: Spring 2011
Question:
What rules are used in naming enzymes?


Replies:
Ashley

Go to http://www.google.com and search for "enzyme naming convention" and find this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme

that says in paragraph 10:

An enzyme's name is often derived from its substrate or the chemical reaction it catalyzes, with the word ending in -ase. Examples are lactase, alcohol dehydrogenase and DNA polymerase. This may result in different enzymes, called isozymes, with the same function having the same basic name. Isoenzymes have a different amino acid sequence and might be distinguished by their optimal pH, kinetic properties or immunologically. Isoenzyme and isozyme are homologous proteins. Furthermore, the normal physiological reaction an enzyme catalyzes may not be the same as under artificial conditions. This can result in the same enzyme being identified with two different names. E.g. Glucose isomerase, used industrially to convert glucose into the sweetener fructose, is a xylose isomerase in vivo. The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology have developed a nomenclature for enzymes, the EC numbers; each enzyme is described by a sequence of four numbers preceded by "EC". The first number broadly classifies the enzyme based on its mechanism.

The top-level classification is

* EC 1 Oxidoreductases: catalyze oxidation/reduction reactions * EC 2 Transferases: transfer a functional group (e.g. a methyl or phosphate group) * EC 3 Hydrolases: catalyze the hydrolysis of various bonds * EC 4 Lyases: cleave various bonds by means other than hydrolysis and oxidation * EC 5 Isomerases: catalyze isomerization changes within a single molecule * EC 6 Ligases: join two molecules with covalent bonds.

The complete nomenclature can be browsed at http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iubmb/enzyme/. According to the naming conventions, enzymes are generally classified into six main family classes and many sub-family classes. Some web-servers, e.g., EzyPred [79] and bioinformatics tools have been developed to predict which main family class [80] and sub-family class [81] [82] an enzyme molecule belongs to according to its sequence information alone via the pseudo amino acid composition.

Sincere regards, Mike Stewart

Commonly, enzymes are named after their function, and end with "ase", such as "DNA polymerase", which polymerizes DNA.

There's a formal naming convention as well:

http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iubmb/enzyme/

And here's a link to some history of enzyme naming:

http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iubmb/enzyme/history.html

Hope this helps, Burr


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