Amino-acid racemase

In enzymology, an amino-acid racemase is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction


 * an L-amino acid $$\rightleftharpoons$$ a D-amino acid

Hence, this enzyme has one substrate, L-amino acid, and one product, D-amino acid.

This enzyme belongs to the family of isomerases, specifically those racemases and epimerases acting on amino acids and derivatives. The systematic name of this enzyme class is amino-acid racemase. This enzyme is also called L-amino acid racemase. This enzyme participates in 4 metabolic pathways: glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, cysteine metabolism, D-glutamine and D-glutamate metabolism, and D-arginine and D-ornithine metabolism. It employs one cofactor, pyridoxal phosphate.

Structural studies
As of late 2007, 5 structures have been solved for this class of enzymes, with PDB accession codes, , , , and.