An Enzyme that Adds Whole Sugar Chains without Breaking Down Products

Glycosynthase (Endo-M-N175Q) is an enzyme developed by Yamamoto, Umekawa, et al. through site-directed mutation of areas around the active center of Endo-M. Since the feature of Glycosynthase is efficient transglycosylation activity by using oxazoline derivatives as glycosyl donors while suppressing sugar hydrolysis activity, the resulting glycosylated products are obtained in high yield with less digestion of the products by the enzyme. Due to the feature Glycosynthase is expected to be applied as useful tool in glycotechnology.