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carboxylase

carboxylase

1 8.8
An enzyme that adds a small chemical group with carbon and oxygen to another molecule
  • noun
  • /kɑrˈbɑksɪleɪs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : carboxilasa
  • After extraction, we measured the effectiveness of carboxylase in catalyzing the addition of carbon groups in various substrates.

Examples

  • Scientists study carboxylase activity to better understand how certain plants fix carbon dioxide during photosynthesis.

  • In this sense, the CCM takes advantage of the C4 carboxylases' low K_m for inorganic carbon and affords the cell an additional mechanism to concentrate carbon.

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  • So this is exactly the same mechanism that we described before for pyruvate carboxylase in gluconeogenesis.

  • In fact, the activity and up-expression of acetyl-CoA carboxylase was a focus for previous studies, including the U.S. Department of Energy's Aquatic Species Program 15.

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  • So biotin bound in the active side of pyruvate carboxylase will utilize bicarbonate in the following way.

  • Based upon overall low gene expression levels for fatty acid synthesis, the results also suggest that the build-up of precursors to the acetyl-CoA carboxylases may play a more significant role.

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  • It has also been reported that both the vitamin K-dependent carboxylase activity and the biosynthesis of its substrates are enhanced by glucocorticoids (53, 54).

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  • C1 carboxylation occurs mainly via pyruvate carboxylase in the mitochondria and not through phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC 1, 56026).

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  • In a biochemical C4-CCM, relatively high-affinity carboxylases fix inorganic carbon to a C3 intermediate and form C4 compounds that can be transported to the chloroplast.

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  • The enzyme carboxylase plays a crucial role in the synthesis of fatty acids by adding a carboxyl group to the molecule.

Surface Forms

carboxylase singular
carboxylases plural

Morphology

carboxylase = carboxyl (semi-transparent) = carboxyl + ase

The formation is regular chemical suffixation (-ase) yielding an enzyme acting on carboxyl groups, but the term is technical and not immediately deducible by non-chemistry learners.

Etymology

The word carboxylase breaks into carboxyl + -ase. The carboxyl part is a chemical part that has 'carbon' and 'oxygen', and -ase is the common ending for enzymes. So, a carboxylase is an enzyme that helps 'add' a carboxyl group, the part with 'carbon' and 'oxygen', to a molecule.