SGER: Catalytic Oligosaccharides in Biological Systems

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It is generally held that proteins and nucleic acids are the two principle classes of naturally occurring biomolecules capable of acting as enzymes in living systems. However, it has also been demonstrated that some cyclic oligosaccharides can act as catalysts in very simple non-biological in vitro systems. The goal of this project is to expand upon these observations. Specifically, this project seeks to demonstrate that cyclic oligosaccharides (in some organisms under certain circumstances) may not only act as catalysts in biological systems, but also, as a direct consequence of their enzyme-like activities, play important and unexpected physiological roles for the organisms that synthesize them. The observation that naturally occurring oligosaccharides possess catalytic activities in biological circumstances may have broad and profound implications for our current understanding of biological chemistry, cellular enzymology, and evolutionary biology. Moreover, they may enable the design and exploitation of directed evolutionary or other schemes to generate families of oligo- and polysaccharide catalysts with novel and useful properties.