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dephosphorylation
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dephosphorylation

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Also known as GO:0016311

In biochemistry, dephosphorylation is the removal of a phosphate () group from an organic compound by hydrolysis. It is a reversible post-translational modification. Dephosphorylation and its counterpart, phosphorylation, activate and deactivate enzymes by detaching or attaching phosphoric esters and anhydrides. A notable occurrence of dephosphorylation is the conversion of ATP to ADP and inorganic phosphate.

~10 min read

Encyclopedic overview

12 sections
Contents
  • History
  • Function
  • Post-translational modification
  • ATP
  • Other reactions
  • Photosystem II
  • Pathology
  • Treatment
  • Research applications
  • Underlying evolutionary forces
  • See also
  • References

In biochemistry, dephosphorylation is the removal of a phosphate () group from an organic compound by hydrolysis. It is a reversible post-translational modification. Dephosphorylation and its counterpart, phosphorylation, activate and deactivate enzymes by detaching or attaching phosphoric esters and anhydrides. A notable occurrence of dephosphorylation is the conversion of ATP to ADP and inorganic phosphate.

Dephosphorylation employs a type of hydrolytic enzyme, or hydrolase, which cleaves ester bonds. The prominent hydrolase subclass used in dephosphorylation is phosphatase, which removes phosphate groups by hydrolysing phosphoric acid monoesters into a phosphate ion and a molecule with a free hydroxyl (–OH) group.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “dephosphorylation” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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