page_title: Mandelonitrile lyase
section_title: Mechanism of action
hierarchical_section_title: Mandelonitrile lyase / Mechanism of action
caption_attribution_description: English: Generalized from a variety of sources, this details the general schema of cyanohydrin synthesis in an enantioselective manner via HNL enzymatic action
context_page_description: In enzymology, a mandelonitrile lyase is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction
  mandelonitrile hydrogen cyanide + benzaldehyde
  Hence, this enzyme has one substrate, mandelonitrile, and two products, hydrogen cyanide and benzaldehyde.
  This enzyme belongs to the family of lyases, specifically the aldehyde-lyases, which cleave carbon-carbon bonds. The systematic name of this enzyme class is mandelonitrile benzaldehyde-lyase. Other names in common use include hydroxynitrile lyase, -oxynitrilase, oxynitrilase, D-oxynitrilase, D-alpha-hydroxynitrile lyase, and mandelonitrile benzaldehyde-lyase. This enzyme participates in cyanoamino acid metabolism. It has 2 cofactors: flavin, and flavoprotein.
context_section_description: HNLs are known to be stereospecific, giving the action of this enzyme a major advantage in effectively creating precursors essential to the metabolic development of amino acids and a wide range of clinically relevant small molecules. The wide variety of organisms and isoforms that constitute the HNL family however, has been determined to yield a variety of different mechanisms that facilitate this reaction in a stereospecific way. Figures 2 and 3 detail the typical synthetic and solved biochemical mechanisms for the formation of this key metabolic intermediate. Key differences between these pathways rely mostly on the lack of enantiomeric specificity conferred through the synthetic pathways despite the use of similar classes of reactions. In addition, most of the synthetic methods for facilitating this set of reactions take place in organic solvent, whereas it has been shown that HNL activity is highest at a polar-nonpolar interface.
caption: Figure 3: Generalized scheme for the enzymatic cycle and action of HNL. R group indicates a benzene ring.[1][9][10][11][12]
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