The

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

-ase is used in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

to form names of

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

s. The most common way to name enzymes is to add this suffix onto the end of the substrate, ''e.g.'' an enzyme that breaks down peroxides may be called

peroxidase Peroxidases or peroxide reductases ( EC numberbr>1.11.1.x are a large group of enzymes which play a role in various biological processes. They are named after the fact that they commonly break up peroxides. Functionality Peroxidases typically ca ...

; the enzyme that produces

telomere A telomere (; ) is a region of repetitive nucleotide sequences associated with specialized proteins at the ends of linear chromosomes. Although there are different architectures, telomeres, in a broad sense, are a widespread genetic feature mos ...

s is called

telomerase Telomerase, also called terminal transferase, is a ribonucleoprotein that adds a species-dependent telomere repeat sequence to the 3' end of telomeres. A telomere is a region of repetitive sequences at each end of the chromosomes of most euka ...

. Sometimes enzymes are named for the function they perform, rather than substrate, e.g. the enzyme that

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

izes (assembles) DNA into strands is called polymerase; see also reverse transcriptase. The ''-ase'' suffix is a

libfix In linguistics, a libfix is a productive bound morpheme affix created by rebracketing and back-formation, often a generalization of a component of a blended or portmanteau word. For example, ''walkathon'' was coined in 1932 as a blend of ''walk'' ...

derived from "

diastase A diastase (; from Greek διάστασις, "separation") is any one of a group of enzymes that catalyses the breakdown of starch into maltose. Alpha amylase degrades starch to a mixture of the disaccharide maltose; the trisaccharide maltotriose, ...

", the first recognized enzyme. Its usage in subsequently discovered enzymes was proposed by

Émile Duclaux Émile Duclaux (24 June 1840 – May 2, 1904) was a French microbiologist and chemist born in Aurillac, Cantal. He studied at the College of Aurillac, the Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris and at École Normale Supérieure. In 1862 he began work as a ...

, with the intention of honoring the first scientists to isolate diastase.

References

{{Orgchemsuffixes

ase Ase may refer to: * Ase, Nigeria, a town in Delta State, Nigeria * -ase, a suffix used for the names of enzymes * Aṣẹ, a West African philosophical concept * American Sign Language (ISO 639-3 code: ase) See also

* Åse (disambiguation) * ...

Biological nomenclature

* Åse (disambiguation) * ...