Benzoylformate decarboxylase


In enzymology, a benzoylformate decarboxylase is an enzyme that catalyzes the following chemical reaction:
Hence, this enzyme has one substrate, benzoylformate, and two products, benzaldehyde and CO2.
This enzyme belongs to the family of lyases, specifically the carboxy-lyases, which cleave carbon-carbon bonds. The systematic name of this enzyme class is benzoylformate carboxy-lyase . Other names in common use include phenylglyoxylate decarboxylase, and benzoylformate carboxy-lyase. This enzyme participates in benzoate degradation via hydroxylation and toluene and xylene degradation. It employs one cofactor, thiamin diphosphate.

Structural studies

As of late 2007, 8 structures have been solved for this class of enzymes, with PDB accession codes,,,,,,, and.