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Updated: Jun 7, 2025

High-throughput Screening of Carbohydrate-degrading Enzymes Using Novel Insoluble Chromogenic Substrate Assay Kits
Published on: September 20, 2016
CAZac: an activity descriptor for carbohydrate-active enzymes
Vincent Lombard1, Bernard Henrissat1,2, Marie-Line Garron1
1Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, UMR7257, INRAE, USC1408, AFMB, 163 Avenue de Luminy, 13288 Marseille, France.
Abstract:
The Carbohydrate-Active enZYme database (CAZy; www.cazy.org) has been providing the reference classification of carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) for >30 years. Based on literature survey, the sequence-based families of CAZymes are enriched with functional data by using the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Enzyme Commission (EC) number system. However, this system was not developed to search or compare functional information. To better harness functional information, we have developed CAZac (CAZyme activity descriptor), a multicriterion system that describes CAZymes' mechanisms, glycosidic bond orientations, subsites and inter-residue connectivities. This new system, implemented for glycoside hydrolases, glycoside phosphorylases, transglycosidases, polysaccharide lyases and lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases allows complex searches in the CAZy database to uncover the evolution of substrate specificity and mechanisms of CAZymes across families.
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