Apyrases

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of nucleotide triphosphates such as ATP into diphosphates and inorganic phosphate, often involved in regulation of extracellular nucleotide levels and signaling
2. Proteins functioning to break down nucleoside triphosphates by removing terminal phosphate groups, playing roles in cellular energy balance and purinergic signaling pathways
3. Biological catalysts that decompose high-energy phosphate bonds in nucleotides, aiding in controlling nucleotide-mediated biological processes and maintaining cellular homeostasis

Etymology: Apyrase is a term from biochemistry, and the word's parts reveal its meaning. The prefix "a-" means "without," and "pyr" comes from Greek "pyr," meaning fire, which in chemistry came to stand for phosphate, a compound once associated with fire through its link to phosphorus, the element that glows and ignites on contact with air. An apyrase, then, is an enzyme that breaks down phosphate compounds by cutting off their phosphate groups, leaving them "without phosphate." The "-ase" ending is the standard suffix chemists attach to nearly every enzyme name, borrowed from the pattern set by "diastase," the first enzyme to be named this way. Following that convention, the plural "apyrases" simply refers to more than one such enzyme, which is why the word's form reads as a set of related catalysts rather than a single substance.

Synonyms: enzymes, nucleotidases