Aldolase

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A metabolic enzyme that breaks down fructose bisphosphate into two three-carbon sugar molecules during glycolysis
2. An enzyme found in muscle and other tissues that cleaves a six-carbon sugar phosphate into smaller sugar fragments
3. A catalyst in cellular energy metabolism that splits fructose 1,6-bisphosphate into triose phosphates as part of sugar breakdown

Etymology: Aldolase is a chemistry term built in two layers. The first part, "aldol," is itself a blend: it combines "aldehyde" with "alcohol," because the aldol reaction produces a molecule that carries both an aldehyde-derived group and an alcohol group. The second part, "-ase," is the standard suffix chemists attach to names of enzymes, so the word simply means an enzyme that acts on aldol compounds. The enzyme's job is to split a six-carbon sugar, fructose 1,6-bisphosphate, into two three-carbon fragments. Because of that cleavage, the word is a sensible label rather than a metaphor: the name points directly at the chemical reaction the enzyme performs, the reverse of an aldol condensation.