Types of Enzymes

Although amylase, protease and lipase are the three main enzymes your body uses to digest food, many other specialized enzymes also help in the process. Cells that line your intestines make enzymes called maltase, sucrase and lactase, each able to convert a specific type of sugar into glucose.

In biology and chemistry, gelatinase is a proteolytic enzyme that allows a living organism to hydrolyse gelatin into its sub-compounds (polypeptides, peptides, and amino acids) that can cross the cell membrane and be used by the organism.

In biochemistry, a hydrolase or hydrolytic enzyme is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of a chemical bond.

Isomerases are a general class of enzymes which convert a molecule from one isomer to another. Isomerases can either facilitate intramolecular rearrangements in which bonds are broken and formed. The general form of such a reaction is as follows: A–B → B–A There is only one substrate yielding one product.

In biochemistry, a ligase is an enzyme that can catalyze the joining of two large molecules by forming a new chemical bond, usually with accompanying hydrolysis of a small pendant chemical group on one of the larger molecules or the enzyme catalyzing the linking together of two compounds, e.g., enzymes that catalyze joining of C-O, C-S, C-N, etc.

Lipase is an enzyme that splits fats so the intestines can absorb them. Lipase hydrolyzes fats like triglycerides into their component fatty acid and glycerol molecules. It is found in the blood, gastric juices, pancreatic secretions, intestinal juices and adipose tissues.

For example, an enzyme that catalyzed this reaction would be a lyase: ATP → cAMP + PP i. Lyases differ from other enzymes in that they require only one substrate for the reaction in one direction, but two substrates for the reverse reaction.

These six types of enzymes are as follows: oxidoreductases, transferases, hydrolases, lyases, isomerases, and ligases. Hydrolases are the most common type, followed by oxioreductases and transferases. They account for over half of the known enzymes. Oxioreductases. Oxidoreductases catalyze oxidation or reduction reactions.

A protease (also called a peptidase or proteinase) is an enzyme that performs proteolysis: protein catabolism by hydrolysis of peptide bonds. Proteases have evolved multiple times, and different classes of protease can perform the same reaction by completely different catalytic mechanisms.

A transferase is any one of a class of enzymes that enact the transfer of specific functional groups (e.g. a methyl or glycosyl group) from one molecule (called the donor) to another (called the acceptor).[2] They are involved in hundreds of different biochemical pathways throughout biology, and are integral to some of life’s most important ...