Difference between revisions of "User:Scmohr/Enzyme background"
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Most enzymes are proteins -- polymers of amino acid residues -- but a very important small set of enzymes are actually RNA molecules. These RNA enzymes are called '''''ribozymes.''''' Although the Registry at present contains no ribozymes, that's likely to change since ribozymes have the important feature that they can be formed directly from DNA merely by transcription. and do not require translation into protein before they can exert their catalytic effects. That feature will surely soon be exploited by synthetic biologists. (Note that when ribozymes are included in the Registry, they will be classified under "RNA" parts.] | Most enzymes are proteins -- polymers of amino acid residues -- but a very important small set of enzymes are actually RNA molecules. These RNA enzymes are called '''''ribozymes.''''' Although the Registry at present contains no ribozymes, that's likely to change since ribozymes have the important feature that they can be formed directly from DNA merely by transcription. and do not require translation into protein before they can exert their catalytic effects. That feature will surely soon be exploited by synthetic biologists. (Note that when ribozymes are included in the Registry, they will be classified under "RNA" parts.] | ||
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| + | The major classification scheme used for enzymes comes from the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iubmb/enzyme/) | ||
Revision as of 20:55, 4 June 2008
Enzyme Coding Regions - Background Information
All of the enzyme coding regions in the Registry consist of single polypeptide chains that can fold into catalytically active molecules. Many enzymes are more complicated than this, consisting of two or more subunits that associate with one another to form the active protein. Engineering such enzymes into a chassis will require careful design since the subunits will be required in some fixed "stoichiometric" ratio -- such as 1:1, 2:1, etc. That means that to avoid wasteful (and perhaps debilitating) accumulation of an excess of one of the subunits, the expression of the separate coding sequences will need to be coordinated.
Most enzymes are proteins -- polymers of amino acid residues -- but a very important small set of enzymes are actually RNA molecules. These RNA enzymes are called ribozymes. Although the Registry at present contains no ribozymes, that's likely to change since ribozymes have the important feature that they can be formed directly from DNA merely by transcription. and do not require translation into protein before they can exert their catalytic effects. That feature will surely soon be exploited by synthetic biologists. (Note that when ribozymes are included in the Registry, they will be classified under "RNA" parts.]
The major classification scheme used for enzymes comes from the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iubmb/enzyme/)