Main Page

CAZypedia has been initiated as a community-driven resource to assemble a comprehensive encyclopedia of the "CAZymes," the carbohydrate-active enzymes and binding proteins involved in the synthesis and degradation of complex carbohydrates. CAZypedia is inspired by, and closely connected with, the actively curated CAZy Database.
It's probably fair to say that CAZypedians are, like our friends at the CAZy DB, a group of "biocurators."

CAZypedia is presently focussed on the Glycoside Hydrolase Families defined in the CAZy Database. Other catabolic and anabolic CAZymes, as well as carbohydrate-binding modules, may be included in the future. In addition, there is a lexicon of terms relevant to CAZymes and carbohydrate chemistry.
These and other aspects of CAZypedia's content can be accessed through the menus on the right side of each page.

CAZypedia is built on authoring and editing principles similar to those of other expert-based online encyclopedias (cf. Citizendium). All contributors to CAZypedia, from the Authors to the Board of Curators, are selected experts in the field. Transparency is achieved through the use of contributors' real names and published biographies in CAZypedia. Individual entries in CAZypedia are managed by Responsible Curators, who are responsible for selecting expert Authors and coordinating author contributions on individual pages. Selection of Responsible Curators, based on their specialist expertise and ability to participate in the active maintenance of entry content, is handled by the Senior Curators.
More information on CAZypedia's content and editorial policies is available here.

If you would like to contact the Board of Curators to get involved with CAZypedia or suggest an improvement, please use this form.

7 March 2010: We are proud to announce that all four pages Curated by Anthony Clarke on peptidoglycan-degrading families have been Curator Approved and further improved over the past couple of weeks. So, in addition to GH23, which made the news on Feb. 18, CAZypedia now contains completed pages on GH102, GH103 and GH104!

---

19 February 2010: It's been a busy week here at CAZypedia: Tirso Pons and Wim Van den Ende just finished the Glycoside Hydrolase Family 68 page, which makes four new Curator Approved pages in four consecutive days!

---

18 February 2010: O Canada! Anthony Clarke of the University of Guelph approved the Glycoside Hydrolase Family 23 page today, which is the first of four pages that he's agreed to curate on peptidoglycan-degrading enzymes. Look out for more from Anthony on CAZypedia in the near future...

---

17 February 2010: The page on the tiny iota-carrageenase family Glycoside Hydrolase Family 82 (containing only 2 members!) has been given Curator Approved status by Gurvan Michel and Mirjam Czjzek from Roscoff, Bretagne.

---

16 February 2010: Dr. Bareket Dassa and Prof. Ed Bayer have just finished and given the Curator Approved stamp to the Glycoside Hydrolase Family 48 page. For the old-timers out there, GH48 used to be called "Cellulase Family L".

---

10 February 2010: In our 2nd news flash of the day, Ryszard Brzezinski has completed work on the chitosanase family page, Glycoside Hydrolase Family 46. This new entry brings the total number of Curator Approved Glycoside Hydrolase Family pages to 44!

---

10 February 2010: Leila Lo Leggio has completed and given Curator Approved status to the Glycoside Hydrolase Family 53 page today. GH53 enzymes are involved in plant biomass conversion through the degradation of beta-1,4-galactan, and Leila has been involved in a number of key structural studies of these enzymes.

---

> older news