Recent advances in biochemistry and biotechnology have enabled significant progress in basic research on carbohydrate-active enzymes and advances in their effective application. The mechanism of catalytic reaction of carbohydrate-active enzymes is not fully understood, though, as they often show unusual substrate specificity and modes of action. This comprehensive collection summarises some of the most important research in the field of carbohydrate-active enzymes, focusing on the enzymatic reaction mechanism, structure-function relationship and role in the living organism
The book is based on papers presented in the 2008 Agricultural Biotechnology Symposium Carbohydrate-active enzymes: structure, function and applications held on September 26th-27th 2008 in Seoul National University, Korea. This symposium was organized by the Center for Agricultural Biomaterials, Seoul National University, Korea, which has organized symposia on agricultural biotechnology annually since 1990. Many important results on new types of carbohydrate-active enzymes and their applications have been reported at these meetings. Papers in Part one of this collection focus on structure-function relationships of carbohydrate-active enzymes. Papers in Part two discuss functions and applications of carbohydrate-active enzymes, such as enzymes for grain processing and glycosidases and their mutants as useful tools for glycoside synthesis.