Deaminases

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Proteins that catalyze the removal of amino groups from molecules ; enzymes involved in the biochemical process of deamination ; biological catalysts that convert amines into other functional groups by extracting amino groups
2. Biological macromolecules responsible for facilitating the elimination of amino groups from compounds ; catalysts in metabolic pathways that transform amino-containing substrates via deamination ; enzymes that chemically modify molecules by removing nitrogen-containing groups
3. Specific enzymes that perform the chemical reaction of deamination by detaching amino groups from organic molecules ; essential proteins that regulate nitrogen metabolism by converting amines ; catalysts that promote the hydrolytic removal of amino groups in cells

Etymology: Deaminases are enzymes that strip the amino group (-NH2) off a molecule, and the word is built from three parts that each carry a clear meaning. The prefix "de-" signals removal, "amino" names the nitrogen-containing group being taken away, and "-ase" is the standard suffix chemists use for enzymes, a convention that follows the pattern of earlier names such as "amylase" and "lipase". Put together, the word describes exactly what these proteins do: they remove amino groups from their substrates. The plural "deaminases" is simply the form used when referring to more than one such enzyme, which is common in biochemistry since many distinct deaminases exist, each acting on a different molecule. The term belongs to modern scientific vocabulary, so it was coined from familiar building blocks rather than inherited from older languages.

Synonyms: aminohydrolase enzymes