Bifunctional methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase/cyclohydrolase, mitochondrial 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 in humans is encoded by the ''MTHFD2''

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

. This gene encodes a nuclear-encoded

mitochondrial A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is use ...

bifunctional enzyme with methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase and

methenyltetrahydrofolate cyclohydrolase In enzymology, a methenyltetrahydrofolate cyclohydrolase () is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction :5,10-methenyltetrahydrofolate + H2O \rightleftharpoons 10-formyltetrahydrofolate Thus, the two substrates of this enzyme are 5,10-me ...

activities. The enzyme functions as a

homodimer In biochemistry, a protein dimer is a macromolecular complex formed by two protein monomers, or single proteins, which are usually non-covalently bound. Many macromolecules, such as proteins or nucleic acids, form dimers. The word ''dimer'' ha ...

and is unique in its absolute requirement for

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...

and inorganic phosphate. Formation of the enzyme-magnesium complex allows binding of NAD. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcripts encoding different

isoforms A protein isoform, or "protein variant", is a member of a set of highly similar proteins that originate from a single gene or gene family and are the result of genetic differences. While many perform the same or similar biological roles, some isof ...

. This gene has a pseudogene on

chromosome 7 Chromosome 7 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans, who normally have two copies of this chromosome. Chromosome 7 spans about 159 million base pairs (the building material of DNA) and represents between 5 and 5.5 percent of the total DN ...

References

Further reading