Carboligase

CARBOLIGASE, an enzyme discovered by Neuberg in yeast, which effects the synthesis of carbon chains. Under the influence of carboligase, acetaldehyde formed during the fermentation of sugar or pyruvic acid is synthesized with added aldehydes into optically active ketoscohols with a longer carbon chain, for example, with benzaldehyde into phenylacetylcarbinol: C₆H₅.CHO + HOC.CH₃ = C₆H₅.CHOH.CO.CH₃ (benzaldehyde + acetaldehyde = phenylacetylcarbinol), and with a second molecule of acetaldehyde into methylacetylcarbinol: CH₃.CHO + HOC.CH₃ = CH₃.CHOH.CO.CH₃ (acetaldehyde + acetaldehyde = methylacetylcarbinol). The synthesis does not occur with ready-made added acetaldehyde. Reversal of the reaction has not yet been observed. This unique enzyme and its biological significance are still almost entirely unstudied. In all probability, carboligase participates in the formation of butyric acid from acetaldehyde during butyric acid fermentation and generally in the formation of higher fatty acids from carbohydrate breakdown products. It is possible that it also plays a role in other synthetic processes involving intermediate metabolism products in the organism, particularly in the resynthesis of glycogen from lactic acid (or methylglyoxal) in the so-called Pasteur-Meyerhof reaction.