Glycosynthases are mutant glycosidases, genetically engineered to catalyse the synthesis of oligosaccharides. A study by Faijes et al. in this issue of the Biochemical Journal has expanded the ability of glycosynthases to catalyse the polymerization of carbohydrates to form unnatural oligosaccharide products that can attain unique crystalline forms. These findings reinforce the potential of gly...

Many disaccharides are usefu1 as lowcariogenic sweet rnaterials or potent bifidus factors, The syntheses of such oligosaccharides have been studied extensively using enzymatic transglycosylation reactions.i "'3) On the other hand, the condensation activity of glycosidases has not been used on a practical level for the synthesis of disaccharides, because the equilibrium of monoand disaccharides ...

The three-dimensional structure of glycosidases and of their complexes and the study of transition-state mimics reveal structural details that correlate with mechanism. Of particular interest are the transition-state conformations harnessed by individual enzymes and the substrate distortion observed in enzyme-ligand complexes. 3D-structure in synergy with transition-state mimicry opens the way ...