Function
Adenylosuccinate lyase (ASL) is an enzyme that catalyzes two reactions in the de novo purine biosynthetic pathway. In both reactions it uses an E1cb elimination reaction mechanism to cleave fumarate off of the substrate. In the first reaction, ASL converts 5-aminoimidazole- (N-succinylocarboxamide) ribotide (SAICAR) to 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribotide (AICAR) and fumarate. AICAR proceeds through three more reactions before it becomes adenylosuccinate (also called succinyladenosine monophosphate or SAMP), which ASL then splits into adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and fumarate. ASL is important to cells not only because of its involvement in creating purines needed for cellular replication, but also because it helps regulate metabolic processes by controlling the levels of AMP and fumarate in the cell.
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