ABSTRACT
Monooxygenases catalyse oxidation-reduction reactions where one of the oxygen atoms in 0, is incorporated into an organic substrate and the other is reduced to water, coupled with the oxidation of two reducing equivalents from an external reductant. An alternative name for this group of enzymes is mixed function oxidases and, because many of the reactions catalysed are hydroxylations, the enzymes are often called hydroxylases. These reactions are important in many aspects of biochemistry, such as metabolism of hydrocarbons and other hydrophobic chemicals, biosynthesis of hormones and neurotransmitters, detoxification reactions, and metabolic activation of carcinogenic substrates.
