The Nudix family is a protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

 family of phosphohydrolases. Using water-mediated catalysis they break a phosphate bond in their substrate to create two products. Nudix stands for Nucleoside Diphosphate linked to X. There are two components to the Nudix family: the so-called Nudix fold of a beta sheet with alpha helices on each side and the Nudix motif which contains catalytic and metal-binding amino acid

Amino acid

Amino acids are molecules containing an amine group, a carboxylic acid group and a side-chain that varies between different amino acids. The key elements of an amino acid are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen...

s. The Nudix motif is GXXXXXEXXXXXXXREUXEEXGU where U is Isoleucine, Leucine, or Valine and X is any amino acid. This forms a short helix which (usually) contains the catalytic amino acids. Nudix family enzymes include Dcp2 of the decapping complex

Decapping complex

The mRNA decapping complex is a protein complex in eukaryotic cells responsible for removal of the 5' cap. The core of the decapping complex is the Nudix family enzyme Dcp2. Many other proteins assemble with Dcp2 to form a protein complex....

, ADP-ribose diphosphatase

ADP-ribose diphosphatase

ADP-ribose diphosphatase is an enzyme that catalyzes a hydrolysis reaction in which water nucleophillicly attacks ADP-ribose to produce AMP and D-ribose 5-phosphate...

, MutT, ADPRase, Ap4A, RppH, and many others.