any one of a class of about 50 enzymes that catalyze reactions involving the conservation of chemical energy and provide a couple between energy-demanding synthetic processes and energy-yielding breakdown reactions. They catalyze the joining of two molecules, deriving the needed energy from the cleavage of an energy-rich phosphate bond (in many cases, by the simultaneous conversion of adenosine triphosphate 【ATP】 to adenosine diphosphate 【ADP】). A ligase catalyzing the formation of a carbon-oxygen bond between an amino acid and transfer RNA is called amino acid–RNA ligase. Carbon–nitrogen (C−N) bonds are formed by the action of such enzymes as amide synthetases and peptide synthetases.