Pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) catalyzes the conversion of pyruvate to acetaldehyde as the penultimate step in alcohol fermentation. The enzyme requires two cofactors, thiamin diphosphate (ThDP) and Mg^(2+), for activity. Zymomonas mobilis PDC shows a strong preference for pyruvate although it will use the higher homologues 2-ketobutyrate and 2-ketovalerate to some extent. We have investigated the effect of mutagenesis of valine 111 and leucine 112 on the substrate specificity. V111 was replaced by glycine, alanine, leucine, and isoleucine while L112 was replaced by alanine, valine, and isoleucine. With the exception of L1121, all mutants retain activity towards pyruvate with k_cat values ranging from 40% to 139% of wild-type. All mutants show changes from wild-type in the affinity for ThDP, and several (V111A, L112A, and L112V) show decreases in the affinity for Mg ^(2+). Two of the mutants, V111G and V111A, show an increase in the K_m for pyruvate. The activity of each mutant towards 2-ketobutyrate and 2-ketovalerate was investigated and some changes from wild-type were found. For the V111 mutants, the most notable of these is a 3.7-fold increase in the ability to use 2-ketovalerate. However, the largest effect is observed for the L112V mutation which increases the ability to use both 2-ketobutyrate (4.3-fold) and 2-ketovalerate (5.7-fold). The results suggest that L112 and, to a lesser extent, V111 are close to the active site and may interact with the alkyl side-chain of the substrate.