N-acylglucosamine 2-epimerase

In enzymology, a N-acylglucosamine 2-epimerase is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction


 * N-acyl-D-glucosamine $$\rightleftharpoons$$ N-acyl-D-mannosamine

Hence, this enzyme has one substrate, N-acyl-D-glucosamine, and one product, N-acyl-D-mannosamine.

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 N-acyl-D-glucosamine 2-epimerase. Other names in common use include acylglucosamine 2-epimerase, and N-acetylglucosamine 2-epimerase. This enzyme participates in aminosugars metabolism. It employs one cofactor, ATP.

Structural studies
As of late 2019, three structures have been solved for this class of enzymes, with the PDB accession codes, , and. They show that the N-acylglucosamine 2-epimerase monomer folds as a barrel composed of α-helices, in a manner known as (α/α)6-barrel. The structures are presented as dimers, with the structures from Sus scrofa and Anabaena sp. CH1 having a different organization than the structure from Nostoc sp. KJV10.