1. Enzymes are named by adding the suffix- ‘ase’ to the name of the substrate on which they act e.g. protease, sucrase, nuclease etc. which break up proteins, sucrose and nucleic acids respectively.
2. The enzymes can be named according to the type of function they perform. For e.g., dehydrogenase remove hydrogen, carboxylase add CO; decarboxylases remove CO2 , oxidases helping in oxidation.
3. Some enzymes are named according to the source from which they are obtained.
For e.g., papain from papaya, bromelain from the member of Bromeliaceae family, pineapple.
4. According to international code of enzyme nomenclature, the name of each enzyme ends with an -ase and consists of double name!
5. The first name indicates the nature of substrate upon which the enzyme acts and the second name indicates the reaction catalyzed.
For e.g., pyruvic decarboxylase catalyses the removal of CO2 from the substrate pyruvic acid.
Similarly, the enzyme glutamate pyruvate transaminase catalyses the transfer of an amino group from the substrate glutamate to another substrate pyruvate.
