Expansion of the zinc metallo-hydrolase family of the β-lactamase fold

Recently, the zinc metallo-hydrolase family of the β-lactamase fold has grown quite rapidly, accompanied by the accumulation of sequence and structure data. The variety of the biological functions of the family is higher than expected. In addition, the members often have mosaic structures with additional domains. The family includes class B β-lactamase, glyoxalase II, arylsulfatase, flavoprotein, cyclase/dehydrase, an mRNA 3′-processing protein, a DNA cross-link repair enzyme, a DNA uptake-related protein, an alkylphosphonate uptake-related protein, CMP-N-acetylneuraminate hydroxylase, the romA gene product, alkylsulfatase, and insecticide hydrolases. In this minireview, the functional and structural varieties of the growing protein family are described.