An enzyme that catalyzes the addition or removal of a carboxyl group (-COOH) from organic molecules.
From carboxyl + -ase (enzyme suffix, from Greek, meaning enzyme or ferment). Enzyme nomenclature was standardized in the 20th century to use -ase for all enzymes.
Carboxylases are molecular sculptors—they add or remove carboxyl groups with precision, and one of them (Rubisco) is literally the most abundant protein on Earth because it's needed for photosynthesis. Without this enzyme, there would be no plants and no air to breathe.
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