title: Polysaccharide lyases.
abstract: Polysaccharide lyases are the products of various microorganisms, bacteriophage and some eukaryotes. All such enzymes cleave a hexose-1,4-alpha- or beta-uronic acid sequence by beta-elimination. They are in some examples, the only known type of enzymes degrading their polyanionic substrates. Although only a small number of these enzymes have been exhaustively studied, the pectin lyases of bacterial origin have proved to be of interesting crystal structure containing a parallel beta-helix domain. Alginate and heparin lyases may yield products with biotechnological potential.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, Edinburgh University, UK.
authors.forename: I W
authors.initials: IW
authors.lastname: Sutherland
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000201:enzymology; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000201:enzymology; D001709:Biotechnology; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000201:enzymology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010944:Plants / Q000201:enzymology; D011133:Polysaccharide-Lyases / Q000378:metabolism*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D011133:Polysaccharide-Lyases