hydroxybutyryl
hy-DROK-si-byoo-tuh-ril
Definition
A chemical group derived from hydroxybutyric acid, appearing in this text as a component of 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, an intermediate molecule involved in biological energy metabolism.
Etymology
Derived from 'hydroxy-' (indicating the presence of a hydroxyl group) and 'butyryl' (from the four-carbon butyric acid, named for 'butyrum', Latin for butter).
In the news
The term is used to identify a specific metabolic enzyme, 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase, which the researchers searched for to see if the marine worm's bacterial symbionts could process the polymers they store.
A marine worm with no mouth and no gut makes its own enzyme for digesting the bioplastic its skin bacteria build up, and the same kind of enzyme turned up in 66 more animal species across nine phyla, from a sponge to an earthworm to a springtail
Read the full article ↗ScienceBlog.com