
Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
4-Oxalocrotonate tautomerase
Introduction
4-Oxalocrotonate tautomerase (EC 5.3.2.-4-OT) is an enzyme that converts 2-hydroxymuconate to the αβ-unsaturated ketone, 2-oxo-3-hexenedioate.[1] This enzyme forms part of a bacterial metabolic pathway that oxidatively catabolizes toluene, p-xylene, 3-ethyltoluene, and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene into intermediates of the citric acid cycle. With a monomer size of just 62 amino acid residues, the 4-Oxalocrotonate tautomerase is one of the smallest enzyme subunits known.[2] However, in solution the enzyme forms a hexamer of six identical subunits, so the active site may be formed by amino acid residues from several subunits. This enzyme is also unusual in that it uses a proline residue at the amino terminus as an active site residue.
References
- ↑ Chen LH, Kenyon GL, Curtin F, Harayama S, Bembenek ME, Hajipour G, Whitman CP (1992). “4-Oxalocrotonate tautomerase, an enzyme composed of 62 amino acid residues per monomer”. J. Biol. Chem. 267 (25): 17716–21. PMID 1339435.
- ↑ Whitman CP (2002). “The 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase family of enzymes: how nature makes new enzymes using a beta-alpha-beta structural motif”. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 402 (1): 1–13. PMID 12051677.
