A nucleotidase is a hydrolytic enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of a nucleotide into a nucleoside and a phosphate.
Nucleotidases have an important function in digestion in that they break down consumed nucleic acids.
Soluble 5'-nucleotidases are all known to belong to the haloacid dehalogenase superfamily of enzymes, which are two domain proteins characterised by a modified Rossman fold as the core and variable cap or hood.
cN-I is a cytosolic nucleotidase(cN) characterized by its affinity toward AMP as its substrate.
5'-Nucleotidases are involved in varied functions like cell–cell communication, nucleic acid repair, purine salvage pathway for the synthesis of nucleotides, signal transduction, membrane transport, etc.