Carboxylic acid reductase: Structure and mechanism

Carboxylic acid reductase (CAR) enzymes are large multi-domain proteins that catalyse the ATP- and NADPH-dependent reduction of wide range of acids to the corresponding aldehydes. This particular reaction is of considerable biotechnological interest. Recent advances in the structural and solution studies of isolated domain, di-domain and full-length CAR enzymes revealed valuable insights into the mechanism of carboxylic acid reduction activity. This review features the phylogenetic, sequence and structural insight into the CAR and implications of these observations in order to improve carboxylic acid reduction activity to develop CAR as robust biocatalyst.