eQuilibrator: Enzymes by Name & Reaction
One consequence of the 100+ year legacy of biochemistry research, is that some enzymes have truly inconvenient names. Some, for example the famous Calvin-Benson-Bassham Cycle enzyme “RuBisCO,” are acronyms (in this case for “Ribulose Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase”). Many enzymes, including the glycolytic enzyme “pyruvate kinase,” are named for the reverse direction of the reaction they typically catalyze in cells. Pyruvate kinase is less-commonly but more-accurately called “phosphoenol transphosphorylase” to reflect its primary role in glycolysis - transfering phosphate groups from phosphoenolpyruvate to ADP to form ATP. In fact, you can see on eQuilibrator that the ATP-forming direction is extremely favorable and so naming the thing “pyruvate kinase” is a bit of an affront to the second law of thermodynamics.
To add insult to injury, both of the enzymes mentioned above catalyze multiple reactions. RuBisCO famously both carboxylates and oxygenates its five-carbon substrate ribulose bisphosphate and some pyruvate kinases can transfer phosphates to various nucleoside diphosphates other than ADP (i.e. forming CTP, GTP, UTP, etc.).
Fortunately you can look up enzymes by name on eQuilibrator, find their alternate names, the reactions that they are known to catalyze and links to other databases (KEGG and BRENDA) to find DNA & protein sequences as well as measured kinetic constants.
Even better: if you forget the name of an enzyme you are interested in, eQuilibrator supports reverse lookup. That is: you can look up enzyme names by searching for the reaction that they catalyze. So if you forgot the name of the enzyme that catalyzes the isomerization of 3-phosphoglycerate to 2-phosphoglycerate, just look it up by searching for “glycerate 2-phosphate = glycerate 3-phosphate” and look under “Catalyzed by.” The enzyme is called “phosphoglycerate mutase” but also “phosphoglyceromutase” and “diphosphoglycomutase” and can also isomerize 1,3 bisphosphoglycerate to 2,3 bisphosphoglycerate. Thanks eQuilibrator ;)