Enzyme catalysis classification, catalyst

For proponents of an RNA-world , predating protein catalysis, to regard RNA catalysts as mimicking enzymes - rather than vice versa - may seem perverse. We use this classification for consistency, and without prejudice... 

Referring to a mechanistic classification of organocatalysts (Seayad and List 2005), currently the two most prominent classes are Brpnsted acid catalysts and Lewis base catalysts. Within the latter class chiral secondary amines (enamine, iminium, dienamine activation for a short review please refer to List 2006) play an important role and can be considered as—by now—already widely extended mimetics of type I aldolases, whereas acylation catalysts, for example, refer to hydrolases or peptidases (Spivey and McDaid 2007). Thiamine-dependent enzymes, a versatile class of C-C bond forming and destructing biocatalysts (Pohl et al. 2002) with their common catalytically active coenzyme thiamine (vitamin Bi), are understood to be the biomimetic roots ofcar-bene catalysis, a further class of nucleophilic, Lewis base catalysis with increasing importance in the last 5 years. 

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