The thiamin diphosphate (ThDP)-dependent enzyme 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate (DXP) synthase carries out the condensation of pyruvate as a 2-hydroxyethyl donor with D-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (D-GAP) as acceptor forming DXP. Toward understanding catalysis of this potential anti infective drug target, we examined the pathway. of the enzyme using steady state and presteady state kinetic methods. It was found that DXP synthase stabilizes the ThDP-bound predecarboxylation intermediate formed between ThDP and pyruvate (C2 alpha-lactylThDP or LThDP) in the absence of D-GAP, while addition of D-GAP enhanced the rate of decarboxylation by at least 600-fold. We postulate that decarboxylation requires formation of a ternary complex with both LThDP and D-GAP bound, and the central enzyme-bound enamine reacts with D-GAP to form DXP. This appears to be the first study of a ThDP enzyme where the individual rate constants could be evaluated by time resolved circular dichroism spectroscopy, and the results could have relevance to other ThDP enzymes in which decarboxylation is coupled to a ligation reaction. The acceleration of the rate of decarboxylation of enzyme-bound LThDP in the presence of D-GAP suggests a new approach to inhibitor design.