title: A sweet new wave: structures and mechanisms of enzymes that digest polysaccharides from marine algae.
abstract: Marine algae contribute approximately half of the global primary production. The large amounts of polysaccharides synthesized by these algae are degraded and consumed by microbes that utilize carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes), thus creating one of the largest and most dynamic components of the Earth's carbon cycle. Over the last decade, structural and functional characterizations of marine CAZymes have revealed a diverse set of scaffolds and mechanisms that are used to degrade agars, carrageenan, alginate and ulvan-polysaccharides from red, brown and green seaweeds, respectively. The analysis of these CAZymes is not only expanding our understanding of their functions but is enabling the enhanced annotation of (meta)-genomic data sets, thus promoting an improved understanding of microbes that drive this marine component of the carbon cycle. Furthermore, this information is setting a foundation that will enable marine algae to be harnessed as a novel resource for biorefineries. In this review, we cover the most recent structural and functional analyses of marine CAZymes that are specialized in the digestion of macro-algal polysaccharides.
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 15 Vassar Street, Bldg 48-108, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Electronic address: hehemann@mit.edu.
authors.forename: Jan-Hendrik
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Hehemann
authors.affiliation: Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, PO Box 3055 STN CSC, Victoria, BC, Canada V8W 3P6.
authors.forename: Alisdair B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Boraston
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Universités, UPMC, Université Paris 06, France; CNRS UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff, CS 90074, F-29688 Roscoff cedex, Bretagne, France. Electronic address: czjzek@sb-roscoff.fr.
authors.forename: Mirjam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Czjzek
mesh_terms: D059001:Aquatic Organisms; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000201:enzymology*; D004798:Enzymes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008386:Marine Biology; D015394:Molecular Structure; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D012624:Seaweed / Q000737:chemistry / Q000201:enzymology; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D004798:Enzymes; D011134:Polysaccharides