Background
The shikimate pathway is composed of seven steps, each catalyzed by an enzyme. The shikimate pathway is responsible for producing the precursors for aromatic amino acids, which are essential to our diets because we cannot synthesize them in our bodies. Only plants, bacteria, and microbial eukaryotes are capable of producing aromatic amino acids. The pathway ultimately converts phosphoenolpyruvate and 4-erythrose phosphate into chorismate, the precursor to aromatic amino acids. 3-dehydroquinate synthase is the enzyme that catalyzes reaction in the second step of this pathway. This second step of the reaction eliminates a phosphate from 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate 7-phosphate which results in 3-dehydroquinate. 3-dehydroquinate synthase is a monomeric enzyme, and has a molecular weight of 39,000. 3-dehydroquinate synthase is activated by inorganic phosphate, and requires NAD+ for activity, although the reaction in total is neutral when catalyzed by an enzyme.
Read more about this topic: 3-dehydroquinate Synthase
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