Phosphoribosylaminoimidazolesuccinocarboxamide synthase

SAICAR synthase
Phosphoribosylaminoimidazole succinocarboxamide synthetase oktamer, Human
Identifiers
EC no.6.3.2.6
CAS no.9023-67-0
Databases
IntEnzIntEnz view
BRENDABRENDA entry
ExPASyNiceZyme view
KEGGKEGG entry
MetaCycmetabolic pathway
PRIAMprofile
PDB structuresRCSB PDB PDBe PDBsum
Gene OntologyAmiGO / QuickGO
Search
PMCarticles
PubMedarticles
NCBIproteins
SAICAR synthetase
Structural genomics, protein TM1243, (SAICAR synthetase)
Identifiers
SymbolSAICAR_synt
PfamPF01259
InterProIPR001636
PROSITEPDOC00810
SCOP21a48 / SCOPe / SUPFAM
CDDcd00476
Available protein structures:
Pfam  structures / ECOD  
PDBRCSB PDB; PDBe; PDBj
PDBsumstructure summary

In molecular biology, the protein domain SAICAR synthase is an enzyme which catalyses a reaction to create SAICAR. In enzymology, this enzyme is also known as phosphoribosylaminoimidazolesuccinocarboxamide synthase (EC 6.3.2.6). It is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction

ATP + 5-amino-1-(5-phospho-D-ribosyl)imidazole-4-carboxylate + L-aspartate ADP + phosphate + (S)-2-[5-amino-1-(5-phospho-D-ribosyl)imidazole-4-carboxamido]succinate

The 3 substrates of this enzyme are ATP, 5-amino-1-(5-phospho-D-ribosyl)imidazole-4-carboxylate, and L-aspartate, whereas its 3 products are ADP, phosphate, and (S)-2-[5-amino-1-(5-phospho-D-ribosyl)imidazole-4-carboxamido]succinate.

This enzyme belongs to the family of ligases, to be specific those forming carbon-nitrogen bonds as acid-D-amino-acid ligases (peptide synthases). The systematic name of this enzyme class is 5-amino-1-(5-phospho-D-ribosyl)imidazole-4-carboxylate:L-aspartate ligase (ADP-forming). This enzyme participates in purine metabolism.

This particular protein family is of huge importance as it is found in all three domains of life. It is the seventh step in the pathway of purine biosynthesis. Purines are vital to all cells as they are involved in energy metabolism and DNA synthesis. Furthermore, they are of specific interest to scientific researchers as the study of the purine biosynthesis pathway could lead to the development of chemotherapeutic drugs. This is because most cancers lack a salvage pathway for adenine nucleotides and rely entirely on the SAICAR pathway.