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Concept

Orotidine decarboxylase

A molecular model of orotidine decarboxylase enzyme is depicted against a backdrop of swirling clouds, symbolizing its role in the biosynthesis of pyrimidine bases in DNA and RNA.

Enzyme that removes a carbon dioxide group from orotidine monophosphate, an essential step in building the pyrimidine bases of DNA and RNA. Famous among biochemists for the sheer scale of its rate enhancement: the uncatalysed reaction has a half-life of about 78 million years; the enzyme finishes it in 18 milliseconds. No synthetic catalyst has ever come within several orders of magnitude of that performance.

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