Discovery, characterization, and application of carbohydrate-active enzymes from diverse biological niches

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The enzymatic synthesis and degradation of complex carbohydrates arguably ranks as one of the most important biocatalytic processes in Nature: Plant and algal cell walls, which are predominantly comprised of polysaccharides, constitute an enormous reservoir in the global carbon cycle (ca. 2000 gigatonnes), with terrestrial net primary production contributing 30-60 gigatonnes of biomass annually. Carbohydrate-active enzymes and their cognate substrates are also central to diverse processes of medical importance, including glycobiological recognition events, endogenous glyco-protein and -lipid turnover, and microbial infection. Not least, polysaccharide-degrading enzyme are essential to the nutrition of both humans and those animals on which we depend for sustenance.