Enzymes acting on carbohydrates (CAZymes) play a central role in biology. Glycoside bond formation and breakdown are efficiently catalyzed by a huge diversity of enzymes operating with well defined regio and stereoselectivities. In the last two decades glycobiology has notably advanced, unraveling the mechanisms of glycosidases, glycosyltransferases, and other auxiliary enzymes involved in the fine decoration of oligosaccharides, polysaccharides and glycoconjugates. Mechanistic aspects of enzyme catalysis arising from structural biology, chemistry, and enzymology provide the foundation to understand their function. But also to apply CAZymes to many different fields including biomedicine, biocatalysis, material science, or energy from biomass.
To acknowledge the Emil Fischer Award 2013, an overview of three topics contributed by the laboratory of Biochemistry at IQS will be presented, thanking the many coworkers that have participated with their enthusiasm to build up a tale on CAZyme mechanisms and applications.
This lecture will summarize recent work on:
1. Engineering retaining glycosidases into glycosynthases and their application to artificial polysaccharides synthesis
2. Mechanistic aspects of glycosidases and glycosyltransferases: experiments and computation
3. Carbohydrate esterases: structural bases of specificity in chitin deacetylases
