Haloacid dehalogenases catalyse the removal of halides from organic haloacids. DehI can process both L- and D-substrates. A crucial aspartate residue is predicted to activate a water molecule for nucleophilic attack of the substrate chiral centre resulting in an inversion of the configuration of either L- or D-substrates in contrast to D-only enzymes [1].

1: The crystal structure of DehI reveals a new alpha-haloacid dehalogenase fold and active-site mechanism. Schmidberger JW, Wilce JA, Weightman AJ, Whisstock JC, Wilce MC; J Mol Biol. 2008;378:284-294. PMID:18353360