Main Page

Welcome to CAZypedia! The Living Encyclopedia of Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes. Now containing the following Curator Approved content: 116 Glycoside Hydrolase (GH) Family pages, 6 Polysaccharide Lyase (PL) Family pages, 3 Carbohydrate Esterase (CE) Family pages, 6 Auxiliary Activity (AA) Family pages, 3 Glycosyltransferase (GT) Family pages, 41 Carbohydrate Binding Module (CBM) Family pages, and 23 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 historical introduction. 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 3 November 2019: Xylan-cleaving LPMOs: Today, Responsible Curator Jean-Guy Berrin approved the Auxiliary Activity Family 14 page authored by Marie Couturier, which describes one of the newer families of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) described in the CAZy database. AA14 was first described in 2018 by Marie, Jean-Guy, and their co-workers. Notably, they showed that the founding members of this family were specific for the plant cell wall matrix glycan, xylan, which contrasts other families of LPMOs that are predominantly cellulose- or chitin-active. Check out the AA14 page for more details! 24 October 2019: A tale of an amoebal CBM: The Carbohydrate Binding Module Family 55 page discussing the pathogenically interesting chitin-binding CBM55 family has been flipped to curator approved. The CBM55 family was first identified from Entamoeba histolytica, a protist that causes dysentery and liver abscesses. The page was authored by John Samuelson with Elizabeth Ficko-Blean acting as responsible curator. Read more on this amoebal CBM family on the CBM55 page. 15 October 2019: A new debut for beta(1-2): The Glycoside Hydrolase Family 144 page, which describes the β-1,2-glucanases in this family, was completed by Author Koichi Abe and Responsible Curator Masahiro Nakajima today. GH144 was founded in 2017 based on a seminal publication by Koichi Abe, Masahiro Nakajima, and their colleagues. Interestingly, GH144 contains both endo-β-1,2-glucanases (EC 3.2.1.71), as well as exo-acting enzymes that release sophorose (Glc-β(1,2)-Glc) from the nonreducing end of β(1,2)-glucan chains ("sophorohydrolases", analogous to the more well-known "cellobiohydrolases") Learn more about these enzymes, whose protein structure is distantly related to that of the fungal β-1,2-glucanases from GH162, on the GH144 page! > 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.