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AAT Bioquest

How are enzymes named?

Posted March 9, 2023


Answer

Enzymes are named by adding a prefix that may describe the substrate that the enzyme acts on or the chemical reaction that the enzyme catalyzes. The prefix is followed by the suffix “-ase”, which indicates that the compound is an enzyme. 

For example, the proteinase is an enzyme that breaks down proteins into amino acids.

Additional resources

A hierarchical deep learning based approach for multi‐functional enzyme classification

Enzymes

Amino Acid Reference Chart