title: Chemical synthesis of cellulose and cello-oligomers using a hydrolysis enzyme as a catalyst.
abstract: Regio- and stereo-selective synthesis of polysaccharides and oligosaccharides has been achieved by using glycosyl fluorides as substrates for cellulases. This methodology has successfully been applied to the first synthesis of cellulose via a non-biosynthetic pathway as well as to a selective preparation of cello-oligosaccharides and unnatural oligosaccharides. Using the enzymatic polymerization, it is possible to control the relative direction (parallel or anti-parallel) of each glucan chain in the synthetic cellulose in vitro. Based on these results, a new concept of 'allos-selectivity' in polymer synthesis has been proposed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Chemistry and Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: S I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Shoda
mesh_terms: D002236:Carbohydrate Conformation; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D002384:Catalysis; D002475:Cellobiose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism; D002480:Cellulase / Q000378:metabolism*; D002482:Cellulose / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins; D009844:Oligosaccharides; C074099:cellobiosyl fluoride; D002475:Cellobiose; D002482:Cellulose; D002480:Cellulase