Chloramphenicol O-acetyltransferase

**Semantic type:** Amino Acid, Peptide, or Protein|Enzyme

**Definition:** Bacterial chloramphenicol-O-acetyltransferase protein (219 aa, 26 kD) is encoded by the bacterial chloramphenicol-O-acetyltransferase (cat) gene. This enzyme detoxifies the antibiotic chloramphenicol via acetylation to yield chloramphenicol 3-acetate. The presence of this enzyme confers chloramphenicol resistance to bacteria, which is used as a marker for selection in molecular techniques that utilize genetic transfection.

**Synonyms:** - Chloramphenicol Acetyl Transferase - Chloramphenicol Transacetylase - EC 2.3.1.28 - cat - cat I - cat II - cat III