title: The Amazing Transglycosylation Activity of Endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidases.
abstract: Major advances have been made in exploring the transglycosylation activity of endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidases (ENGases) for synthetic purpose. The exploration of synthetic sugar oxazolines as donor substrates for the ENGase-catalyzed transglycosylation has expanded the substrate availability and significantly enhanced the overall transglycosylation efficiency. On the other hand, site-directed mutagenesis in combination with activity screening has led to the discovery of the first generation ENGase-based glycosynthases that can use highly active sugar oxazolines as substrates for transglycosylation but lack hydrolytic activity on the ground-state products. ENGases have shown amazing flexibility in transglycosylation and possess much broader substrate specificity than previously thought. Now the ENGase-based chemoenzymatic method has been extended to the synthesis of a range of complex carbohydrates, including homogeneous glycopeptides, glycoproteins carrying well-defined glycans, novel oligosaccharide clusters, unusually glycosylated natural products, and even polysaccharides. This article highlights recent advances related to ENGase-catalyzed transglycosylation with a focus on their synthetic potential.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Human Virology and Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA, Tel: 410-706-4982.
authors.forename: Lai-Xi
authors.initials: LX
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: chemoenzymatic synthesis; endoglycosidase; glycoprotein; sugar oxazoline; transglycosylation