Aldolases

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Enzymes that catalyze the splitting of fructose bisphosphate into smaller sugar molecules during glycolysis and related metabolic pathways
2. Biological catalysts that break down certain sugar phosphates into simpler three-carbon compounds as part of cellular energy processing
3. Proteins that cleave fructose bisphosphate, playing a central role in the breakdown of sugars within living cells

Etymology: Aldolases are a class of enzymes, and the plural form simply names more than one of them. The word is built from "aldol," itself a blend-style name for a chemical compound, plus the suffix "-ase," which chemists attach to nearly every enzyme name. The suffix is the reason enzymes sound alike: "-ase" marks the protein as a catalyst, while the front half says what kind of reaction it speeds up. "Aldol" was coined as a contraction of "aldehyde" and "alcohol," since the compound it names carries both an aldehyde group and an alcohol group. The aldol reaction, which joins two smaller molecules into one larger molecule with both functional groups intact, is the chemistry that aldolases catalyse, and the enzyme name follows directly from that reaction.