NADP-malic enzyme from plants: a ubiquitous enzyme involved in different metabolic pathways

DRINCOVICH, MARIA FABIANA; PAULA CASATI; ANDREO, CARLOS SANTIAGO

FEBS LETTERS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2001 vol. 490 p. 1 - 6

0014-5793

NADP-malic enzyme (NADP-ME) is a widelydistributed enzyme that catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylationof L-malate. Photosynthetic NADP-MEs are found in C4 bundlesheath chloroplasts and in the cytosol of CAM plants, while nonphotosyntheticNADP-MEs are either plastidic or cytosolic invarious plants. We propose a classification of plant NADP-MEsbased on their physiological function and localization and wedescribe recent advances in the characterization of each isoform.Based on the alignment of amino acid sequences of plant NADPMEs,we identify putative binding sites for the substrates andanalyze the phylogenetic origin of each isoform, revealing severalfeatures of the molecular evolution of this ubiquitousenzyme.