UDP-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine $rightleftharpoons$ UDP-N-acetyl-D-galactosamine

Hence, this enzyme has one substrate, UDP-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, and one product, UDP-N-acetyl-D-galactosamine.

This enzyme belongs to the family of isomerases, specifically those racemases and epimerases acting on carbohydrates and derivatives. The systematic name of this enzyme class is UDP-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine 4-epimerase. Other names in common use include UDP acetylglucosamine epimerase, uridine diphosphoacetylglucosamine epimerase, uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine-4-epimerase, and uridine 5'-diphospho-N-acetylglucosamine-4-epimerase. This enzyme participates in aminosugars metabolism.

Structural studies

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

References

• GLASER L "The biosynthesis of N-acetylgalactosamine". J. Biol. Chem. 234 2801–5.
• Kornfeld S and Glaser L "The synthesis of thymidine-linked sugars. V. Thymidine diphosphate-amino sugars". J. Biol. Chem. 237 3052–3059.

External links

The CAS registry number for this enzyme class is .

Gene Ontology (GO) codes