Aspartoacylase | |||||||||
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Structure of aspartoacylase dimer. Generated from 2I3C.
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Identifiers | |||||||||
EC number | 3.5.1.15 | ||||||||
Databases | |||||||||
IntEnz | IntEnz view | ||||||||
BRENDA | BRENDA entry | ||||||||
ExPASy | NiceZyme view | ||||||||
KEGG | KEGG entry | ||||||||
MetaCyc | metabolic pathway | ||||||||
PRIAM | profile | ||||||||
PDB structures | RCSB PDB PDBe PDBsum | ||||||||
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Search | |
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PMC | articles |
PubMed | articles |
NCBI | proteins |
Aspartoacylase (EC 3.5.1.15, aminoacylase II, N-acetylaspartate amidohydrolase, acetyl-aspartic deaminase, acylase II, ASPA) is a hydrolase enzyme responsible for catalyzing the deacylation of N-acetyl-l-aspartate (N-acetylaspartate,NAA) into aspartate and acetate. It is a zinc-dependent hydrolase that promotes the deprotonation of water to use as a nucleophile in a mechanism analogous to many other zinc-dependent hydrolases. It is most commonly found in the brain, where it controls the levels of N-actetyl-l-aspartate. Mutations that result in loss of aspartoacylase activity are associated with Canavan disease, a rare autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder.
Aspartoacylase is a dimer of two identical monomers of 313 amino acids and use a zinc cofactor in each. There are two distinct domains in each monomer: the N-terminal domain from residues 1-212 and the C-terminal domain from residues 213-313. The N-terminal domain of aspartoacylase is similar to that of zinc-dependent hydrolases such as carboxypeptidaseA. However, carboxypeptidases do not have something similar to the C-domain. In carboxypeptidase A, the active site is accessible to large substrates like the bulky C-terminal residue of polypeptides, whereas the C-domain sterically hinders access to the active site in aspartoacylase. Instead, the N-domain and C-domain of aspartoacylase form a deep narrow channel that leads to the active site.