Methylaspartate ammonia-lyase

The enzyme methylaspartate ammonia-lyase (EC 4.3.1.2) catalyzes the chemical reaction

L-threo-3-methylaspartate ${\displaystyle \rightleftharpoons }$ mesaconate + NH₃

methylaspartate ammonia-lyase
X-ray structure of methylaspartate ammonia lyase. PDB entry 1kko​[1]
Identifiers
EC no.	4.3.1.2
CAS no.	9033-26-5
Databases
IntEnz	IntEnz view
BRENDA	BRENDA entry
ExPASy	NiceZyme view
KEGG	KEGG entry
MetaCyc	metabolic pathway
PRIAM	profile
PDB structures	RCSB PDB PDBe PDBsum
Gene Ontology	AmiGO / QuickGO
Search PMC articles PubMed articles NCBI proteins

This enzyme belongs to the family of lyases, specifically ammonia lyases, which cleave carbon-nitrogen bonds. The systematic name of this enzyme class is L-threo-3-methylaspartate ammonia-lyase (mesaconate-forming). Other names in common use include β-methylaspartase, 3-methylaspartase, and L-threo-3-methylaspartate ammonia-lyase. This enzyme participates in c5-branched dibasic acid metabolism and nitrogen metabolism. It employs one cofactor, cobamide.

Structural studies

Several structures of this enzyme have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank (linked in the infobox) which show it possesses a TIM barrel domain.