Fig. 4
From: Alcohol acyltransferases for the biosynthesis of esters
Proposed catalytic mechanism of PpAAT. Esterification reaction using acetyl-CoA and alcohols as substrates. (1) substrates at the catalytic center, (2) the hydroxyl group of alcohols forms a hydrogen bond with His165, (3) a hydrogen atom is transferred to the N atom on His165 and the alcohol substrate forms an O anion to attack the acetyl C atom of acetyl-CoA, (4) the substrates form a C = O double bond and coenzyme A is negatively charged, (5) an ester is formed and the negatively charged coenzyme A accepts a hydrogen atom from His165 to form coenzyme A. This figure is from reference [67]