UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 4-epimerase

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 4-epimerase
Identifiers
EC number	5.1.3.7
CAS number	9024-16-2
Databases
IntEnz	IntEnz view
BRENDA	BRENDA entry
ExPASy	NiceZyme view
KEGG	KEGG entry
MetaCyc	metabolic pathway
PRIAM	profile
PDB structures	RCSB PDB PDBe PDBsum
Gene Ontology	AmiGO / EGO
Search PMC articles PubMed articles NCBI proteins

In enzymology, an UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 4-epimerase (EC 5.1.3.7) is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction

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 1SB8 and 1SB9.

References

• GLASER L (1959). "The biosynthesis of N-acetylgalactosamine". J. Biol. Chem. 234: 2801–5. PMID 13828347.
• Kornfeld S and Glaser L (1962). "The synthesis of thymidine-linked sugars. V. Thymidine diphosphate-amino sugars". J. Biol. Chem. 237: 3052–3059. PMID 14034827.