Isomerase

An isomerase is an enzyme which can convert one molecule into one of its isomers.

Like all enzymes, isomerases are proteins which have an active site for the enzyme reaction and a target molecule recognition site which gives the reaction its specificity.

The isomerases generally catalyse rearrangements of functional groups of the same molecule. There are many types of isomerases depending on the type of reaction they catalyse (racemases, cis-trans isomerases, lyases, transferases and intramolecular oxidoreductases …).