Spider’s venom phospholipases D: A structural review

Abstract Spider venoms are complex mixtures of proteins, peptides and small organic and inorganic molecules. Among the proteins, phospholipases D(PLDs) present the major portion, and till now they are the most studied enzymes in spider venom. These PLDs have been divided into two classes, I and II, based on their primary and tertiary structure. Currently, crystal structures of both classes of these enzymes are available in the Protein Data Bank(PDB). Their three-dimensional structure is composed of eight α-helices and eight β-strands forming the ubiquitous fold called triosephosphate isomerase( TIM) barrel. These enzymes use general acid-base catalysisto hydrolyzes their substrate. In this review, we have described the structural features, structure-based mechanisms of catalysis, maturation, and inhibition of these enzymes using the synthetic inhibitor.