Malonate is a salt or ester of malonic acid, usually found in small amounts in plants and produced by some bacteria. There are two forms in the environment: dimethyl and diethyl. Most of the environmental malonate comes from industrial production. Few strains of bacteria are able to utilize the decarboxylation of malonate to acetate as a source of carbon and energy. (Caspi 2013) Malonate competitively inhibits the enzyme succinate dehydrogenase. In competitive inhibition, the inhibitor has a similar structure to the substrate. A certain part of the enzyme corms an enzyme-inhibitor complex, decreasing the enzyme-substrate complex formation rate. (Pardee, Potter 1948) Malonate binds to the active site of the enzyme and competes with succinate.
