Structural analysis of uncharacterized enzymes acting on glycans and its application to the production of oligosaccharides

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This study focuses on bacterial enzymes homologous to processing alpha-glucosidases I and II, both of which hydrolyze eukaryotic glycans. An enzyme from E. coli, YgjK, was successfully converted into a glycosynthase, and the enzyme efficiently produced Glc-alpha-1,2-Gal. The result suggests that the natural substrates of YgjK are likely to be sugars containing the Glc-alpha-1,2-Gal structure. We also studied related enzymes from Thermus and other bacterial species. This study shows that a combination of protein crystallography and glycosynthase reaction allows us to determine the natural substrates of carbohydrate-active enzymes, even if the substrates are not commercially available.