Vanadium bromoperoxidase is a haloperoxidase, used to synthesize halogenated organic compounds associated with defense and pigmentation in seaweeds and marine algae. It is the source of the bulk of organobromine compounds in the ocean. This enzyme class is unusual in that it has an absolute requirement for the transition metal vanadium, which is present as vanadate.
Vanadium bromoperoxidases have been found in bacteria, fungi, and marine macroalgae (seaweeds) which produce brominated compounds. It has not been definitively identified as the bromoperoxidase of higher eukaryotes, such as Murex snails, which have a very stable and specific bromoperoxidase, but perhaps not a vanadium dependent one.[1]
The enzymes catalyses the oxidation of bromide ions by hydrogen peroxide, which results in the specific bromination of certain eletrophilic organic substrates. The enzyme will form singlet oxygen in the absence of the appropriate organic substrates.