Members of this family include known and predicted examples of agmatinase (agmatine ureohydrolase, EC:3.5.3.11) and members of archaea, for which no definitive agmatinase sequence has yet been made available. However, archaeal sequences are phylogenetically close to the experimentally verified Bacillus subtilis sequence. One species of Halobacterium has been demonstrated in vitro to produce agmatine from arginine, but no putrescine from ornithine, suggesting that arginine decarboxylase and agmatinase, rather than arginase and ornithine decarboxylase, lead from arginine to polyamine biosynthesis.
Elkins JM, Clifton IJ, Hernandez H, Doan LX, Robinson CV, Schofield CJ, Hewitson KS.
Oligomeric structure of proclavaminic acid amidino hydrolase: evolution of a hydrolytic enzyme in clavulanic acid biosynthesis.
Biochem. J. 366 2002 423-34
[PubMed: 12020346] http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BJ20020125
Sekowska A, Danchin A, Risler JL.
Phylogeny of related functions: the case of polyamine biosynthetic enzymes.
Microbiology (Reading, Engl.) 146 ( Pt 8) 2000 1815-28
[PubMed: 10931887]