Computer Simulation to Rationalize "Rational" Engineering of Glycoside Hydrolases and Glycosyltransferases

Glycoside hydrolases and glycosyltransferases are the main classes of enzymes that synthesize and degrade carbohydrates, molecules essential to life that are a challenge for classical chemistry. As such, considerable efforts have been made to engineer these enzymes and make them pliable to human nee...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Coines, Joan; Cuxart Sanchez, Irene; Teze, David; Rovira i Virgili, Carme
Format: Article
Status:Accepted version
Publication date:2022
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/214307
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/214307
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Fosfats
Pèptids
Proteïnes
Phosphates
Peptides
Proteins
Description
Summary:Glycoside hydrolases and glycosyltransferases are the main classes of enzymes that synthesize and degrade carbohydrates, molecules essential to life that are a challenge for classical chemistry. As such, considerable efforts have been made to engineer these enzymes and make them pliable to human needs, ranging from directed evolution to rational design, including mechanism engineering. Such endeavors fall short and are unreported in numerous cases, while even success is a necessary but not sufficient proof that the chemical rationale behind the design is correct. Here we review some of the recent work in CAZyme mechanism engineering, showing that computational simulations are instrumental to rationalize experimental data, providing mechanistic insight into how native and engineered CAZymes catalyze chemical reactions. We illustrate this with two recent studies in which (i) a glycoside hydrolase is converted into a glycoside phosphorylase and (ii) substrate specificity of a glycosyltransferase is engineered toward forming O-, N-, or S-glycosidic bonds.