Malic Enzyme 2, NADP+ Dependent, Mitochondrial (ME2)

ME2 encodes a mitochondrial NAD-dependent malic enzyme, a homotetrameric protein, that catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of malate to pyruvate. It had previously been weakly linked to a syndrome known as Friedreich ataxia that has since been shown to be the result of mutation in a completely different gene.Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms found for this gene.The deduced 584-amino acid precursor protein has a calculated molecular mass of 65.4 kD. The 5-prime untranslated region of the transcript contains an 80-nucleotide sequence that is extremely G/C rich (76.3%). ME2 contains a mitochondrial leader sequence, an amphiphilic alpha helix, an ADP-binding fold, and a putative dinucleotide-binding domain.