Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes: Structure, Activity and Reaction Products 2020

Dear Colleagues,

Carbohydrate-active enzymes are responsible for both biosynthesis and breakdown of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates. They are involved in many metabolic pathways, in the biosynthesis and degradation of various biomolecules such as bacterial exopolysaccharides, starch, cellulose and lignin, and in the glycosylation of proteins and lipids. Carbohydrate-active enzymes are classified into glycoside hydrolases, glycosyltransferases, polysaccharide lyases, carbohydrate esterases, and enzymes with auxiliary activities (CAZy database, www.cazy.org). Glycosyltransferases synthesize a huge variety of complex carbohydrates with different degrees of polymerization, moieties and branching. On the other hand, complex carbohydrates breakdown is carried out by glycoside hydrolases, polysaccharide lyases and carbohydrate esterases. Their interesting reactions have attracted the attention of researchers belonging to different scientific fields ranging from basic research to biotechnology. Interest in carbohydrate-active enzymes is due not only to their ability to build and degrade biopolymers—which is highly relevant in biotechnology—but also because they are involved in bacterial biofilm formation, and in glycosylation of proteins and lipids, with important health implications.

This Special Issue aims at gathering new research results to broaden our understanding about carbohydrate-active enzymes, their mutants and their reaction products at the molecular level.

It focuses on enzymes active in the biosynthesis, modification and degradation of oligo and polysaccharides, and glycoproteins and glycolipids.

Authors are invited to submit their original research and review articles.

The following topics are relevant to this Special Issue.

• Purification and biochemical characterization of enzymes and/or their mutants
• Biophysical characterization of enzymes and/or their mutants;
• Investigation of structure and function relationship by NMR and X-ray crystallography;
• Structural and functional comparison of enzymes from different organisms;
• Proposals of substrate binding mode and reaction mechanism of enzymes and/or their mutants;
• Study of the functional and conformational changes of enzymes upon mutation;
• Homology modelling of enzymes;
• Molecular docking of substrates/products in the active site of enzymes and/or their mutants;
• Molecular characterization of oligo and polysaccharides;
• Enzyme engineering

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Life.

Prof. Dr. Stefano Benini
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.