Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. Inhibition studies with anions and sulfonamides of a new cytosolic enzyme from the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata.

The catalytic activity and the inhibition of a new coral carbonic anhydrase (CA, EC 4.2.1.1), from the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata, STPCA-2, has been investigated. STPCA-2 has high catalytic activity for the physiological reaction being less sensitive to anion and sulfonamide inhibitors compared to STPCA, a coral enzyme previously described. The best STPCA-2 anion inhibitors were sulfamide, sulfamic acid, phenylboronic acid, and phenylarsonic acid (K(I)s of 5.7-67.2μM) whereas the best sulfonamide inhibitors were acetazolamide and dichlorophenamide (K(I)s of 74-79nM). Because this discriminatory effect between these two coral CAs, sulfonamides may be useful to better understand the physiological role of STPCA and STPCA-2 in corals and biomineralization processes.