Enzymatic Cleavage of Glycosides: Mechanism, Inhibition and Synthetic Applications

Abstract

This chapter focuses on mechanism, inhibition, and application of glycoside hydrolases as enzymatic cleavage of glycosides. Over the years, many conflicting mechanisms for catalysis by glycoside hydrolases have been proposed. There is now convincing evidence for detailed mechanisms that apply to the major classes of inverting and retaining glycoside hydrolases. Glycoside hydrolases may also be usefully classified into endo- or exo-glycoside hydrolases. This classification is made on the basis of whether a glycoside hydrolase cleaves an internal glycosidic linkage in a chain (endo) or at the end of a chain (exo; most commonly the nonreducing end, but not always). Whether an enzyme is exo- or ..