enzymology 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 ...

, an L-amino-acid alpha-ligase () is an

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 ...

that

catalyzes Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...

the

chemical reaction A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the IUPAC nomenclature for organic transformations, chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that only involve the pos ...

:ATP + an L-amino acid + an L-amino acid

\rightleftharpoons

ADP + phosphate + L-aminoacyl-L-amino acid Thus, the two substrates of this enzyme are

ATP ATP may refer to: Companies and organizations * Association of Tennis Professionals, men's professional tennis governing body * American Technical Publishers, employee-owned publishing company * ', a Danish pension * Armenia Tree Project, non ...

and

L-amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha am ...

, whereas its 3 products are

ADP Adp or ADP may refer to: Aviation * Aéroports de Paris, airport authority for the Parisian region in France * Aeropuertos del Perú, airport operator for airports in northern Peru * SLAF Anuradhapura, an airport in Sri Lanka * Ampara Air ...

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phospho ...

, and L-aminoacyl-L-amino acid. This enzyme belongs to the family of ligases, specifically those forming carbon-nitrogen bonds as acid-D-amino-acid ligases (peptide synthases). The systematic name of this enzyme class is L-amino acid:L-amino acid ligase (ADP-forming). Other names in common use include L-amino acid alpha-ligase, bacilysin synthetase, YwfE, and L-amino acid ligase.

References

* EC 6.3.2 Enzymes of unknown structure {{6.3-enzyme-stub