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Welcome to CAZypedia! The Living Encyclopedia of Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes. Now containing the following Curator Approved content: 131 Glycoside Hydrolase (GH) Family pages, 12 Polysaccharide Lyase (PL) Family pages, 8 Carbohydrate Esterase (CE) Family pages, 7 Auxiliary Activity (AA) Family pages, 3 Glycosyltransferase (GT) Family pages, 50 Carbohydrate Binding Module (CBM) Family pages, and 24 Lexicon pages!

Purpose CAZypedia has been initiated as a community-driven resource to assemble a comprehensive encyclopedia of the "CAZymes," the carbohydrate-active enzymes and associated carbohydrate-binding modules 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." If you are new to the CAZyme classification, "Sorting the Diverse" by Professors Gideon Davies and Michael Sinnott (The Biochemist, 2008, vol. 30, part 4, pp. 26-32) provides an excellent introduction and historical perspective. Content CAZypedia initially focussed on the Glycoside Hydrolase Families defined in the CAZy Database, and we continue to strive for complete coverage of this diverse class of enzymes. Other catabolic and anabolic CAZymes, as well as Auxiliary redox enzymes and non-catalytic Carbohydrate Binding Modules, continue to be incorporated as interest and engagement from the scientific community grows. 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 left side of each page. How CAZypedia works CAZypedia is built on authoring and editing principles similar to those of other expert-based online encyclopedias (cf. Citizendium, Scholarpedia). All contributors to CAZypedia, from the Authors to the Board of Curators, are 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. A short lecture and a set of slides presenting CAZypedia are freely available here. An article describing CAZypedia's genesis and evolution has been published in the journal Glycobiology. Contact If you would like to get involved with CAZypedia or suggest an improvement, please contact the Board of Curators.

Latest news 13 April 2023 The champagne is on ice: We are ecstatic to report that we’ve hit 50 Curator Approved CAZypedia CBM pages! The CBM92 and the CBM94 page were finished within under 3 hours of one another. Congratulations to the contributors for both of the pages: new CAZypedia contibutors Xuanwei Mei and Yaoguang Chang for the CBM92 page and longtime CAZypedia contributor Takatsugu Miyazaki for the CBM94 page. Next stop: 100 Curator Approved CBM pages (this may take a little while). 13 April 2023, 00:20 CBM92 is red hot! CBM92 is one of the newer families of CBMs and it has a red hot preference for the red algal extracellular matrix polysaccharide carrageenan, a complex sulfated galactan. Author Xuanwei Mei describes the novel carrageenan-binding capacities of the biochemically characterized CBM92 which can be found appended to a kappa-carrageenase produced by the marine bacterium Wenyingzhuangia aestuarii. Yaoguang Chang acted as responsible curator on the page. Head on over to the CBM92 page to learn more about this red hot CBM family! 12 April 2023, 21:50 CBM94, one for the books! Three of the CBM94 eukaryotic members have recently been characterized (mouse, silkworm and human) and are described in detail on the CBM94 page which has both been authored and responsibly curated by Takatsugu Miyazaki. These N-acetylglucosamine-specific CBM94s are found on the C-termini of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase IVa, an enzyme involved in N-glycan biosynthesis. The CBM94 members play important roles in the functionality of their cognate glycosyl transferase catalytic module which is discussed in detail on the CBM94 CAZypedia page. See more on these remarkable eukaryotic CBMs here! 11 January 2023 CBM44, it's what's in store. We begin 2023 right with a Curator Approved CBM44 page. Marie-Katherin Zühlke has authored the page on the characterized bacterial CBM44 shown to interact with polymers containing ß-1,4-linked glucose in their chains. Responsible curator Elizabeth Ficko-Blean is pleased as punch. Check out the CBM44 CAZypedia page to learn more about this CBM family! > older news

Dedication CAZypedia is dedicated to the late Prof. Bruce Stone, whose enthusiasm to create a comprehensive encyclopedia of carbohydrate-active enzymes was essential in the genesis of this project.