In enzymology, an acetylenedicarboxylate decarboxylase is an enzyme

Enzyme

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

 that catalyzes

Catalysis

Catalysis is the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst. Unlike other reagents that participate in the chemical reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself. A catalyst may participate in multiple chemical transformations....

 the chemical reaction

Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Chemical reactions can be either spontaneous, requiring no input of energy, or non-spontaneous, typically following the input of some type of energy, such as heat, light or electricity...

acetylenedicarboxylate + H₂O pyruvate + CO₂

Thus, the two substrates of this enzyme are acetylenedicarboxylate

Acetylenedicarboxylic acid

Acetylenedicarboxylic acid or butynedioic acid is an organic compound with the formula C4H2O4 or HO2C-C≡C-CO2H. It is a crystalline solid that is soluble in diethyl ether....

 and H₂O

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

, whereas its two products

Product (chemistry)

Product are formed during chemical reactions as reagents are consumed. Products have lower energy than the reagents and are produced during the reaction according to the second law of thermodynamics. The released energy comes from changes in chemical bonds between atoms in reagent molecules and...

 are pyruvate and CO₂

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

.

This enzyme belongs to the family of lyase

Lyase

In biochemistry, a lyase is an enzyme that catalyzes the breaking of various chemical bonds by means other than hydrolysis and oxidation, often forming a new double bond or a new ring structure...

s, specifically the carboxy-lyases, which cleave carbon-carbon bonds. The systematic name of this enzyme class is acetylenedicarboxylate carboxy-lyase (pyruvate-forming). Other names in common use include acetylenedicarboxylate hydratase, acetylenedicarboxylate hydrase, and acetylenedicarboxylate carboxy-lyase. This enzyme participates in pyruvate metabolism.