Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes—a Tribute to Peter Biely and His Contribution to Science

Dear Colleagues,

Plant biomass is an important renewable resource. The economic feasibility of the process of its bioconversion to biofuels, biochemicals and other high-value products is accentuated by the complexity of the structure of plant cell walls and simultaneously hampered by the insufficient knowledge of their biosynthesis and degradation. The reason for this is evolution, which changes the characteristics of species and relies on the process of natural selection. The pressure from microorganisms confronting plant biomass leads to the formation of plant cell wall structures that echo plant responses to the environment. Nevertheless, the pressure on microorganisms to survive allows for the progression of novel biocatalysts cleaving most of the covalent linkages contained in plant cell walls. This issue is focused on carbohydrate-active enzymes involved in the biodegradation of plant cell walls with a special emphasis on plant polysaccharides and enzyme catalytic mechanisms. This knowledge aims to contribute to the progress towards the bioconversion of plant biomass.

We wish to dedicate this Special Issue to Dr. Peter Biely, a chief scientist at the Institute of Chemistry of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Dr. Biely is a true research pioneer in the field of carbohydrate-active enzymes, who has made immense contributions to the field. His advances on the elucidation of catalytic function and the mode of action of specifically xylan-degrading enzymes, using classic biochemical approaches, have been ground-breaking.

Contributions on any aspect of this field are welcome, such as biochemical and biophysical analyses, structural studies, structure–function relationships, computational approaches, and applications of analyzed enzymes, and are not limited to the following:

• Biofuels and biochemicals;
• Carbohydrate-active enzymes;
• Carbohydrate esterases;
• Catalytic mechanisms;
• Computational chemistry;
• Enzyme bioengineering;
• Glycoside hydrolases and transferases;
• Plant cell walls;
• Plant polysaccharides;
• Structure–function relationships.

Prof. Dr. Maria Hrmova
Prof. Dr. Paul Christakopoulos
Prof. Dr. Francisco I. Javier Pastor
Prof. Dr. Evangelos Topakas
Guest Editors

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