Phenylacetate decarboxylase

Not to be confused with Phenylpyruvate decarboxylase.

Phenylacetate decarboxylase is a carboxy-lyase enzyme. The enzyme was isolated from anoxic toluene-producing microbial communities. It is a glycyl radical enzyme.^[1][2] It requires activation through a dedicated cognate activating enzyme (encoded by PhdA). The cognate activase catalyses the reductive lysing of S-Adenosyl methionine which yields a 5'-deoxyadenosyl radical that allows the production of the glycyl radical.^[3] The enzyme catalyzes the following reaction:

Phenylacetate + H⁺ = Toluene + CO2

Phenylacetate decarboxylase
Phenylacetate decarboxylase (left) and its activator (right), as folded by AlphaFold
Identifiers
EC no.	4.1.1.119
Databases
IntEnz	IntEnz view
BRENDA	BRENDA entry
ExPASy	NiceZyme view
KEGG	KEGG entry
MetaCyc	metabolic pathway
PRIAM	profile
PDB structures	RCSB PDB PDBe PDBsum
Search PMC articles PubMed articles NCBI proteins

The enzyme is involved in various biosynthetic and bio-catabolic pathways, including the toluene production pathway, phenylacetate degradation pathway and biosynthetic pathway of select other aromatic compounds in toluene (and other aromatic carbon) producing bacterial species.^[4]