Polysaccharide epimerases

This page is currently under construction. This means that the Responsible Curator has deemed that the page's content is not quite up to CAZypedia's standards for full public consumption. All information should be considered to be under revision and may be subject to major changes.

• Author: ^^^Margrethe Gaardlos^^^ and ^^^Anne Tondervik^^^
• Responsible Curator: ^^^Finn Aachmann^^^

---

Introduction

Mannuronan C5-epimerases

Mannuronan C5-epimerases are a group of enzymes that catalyze epimerization at the polymer-level of β-d-mannuronic acid residues (hereafter denoted M) into α-l-guluronic acid residues (hereafter denoted G) in alginate [1, 2, 3]. Alginate is an anionic polysaccharide made by brown seaweeds, some species of red algae, and the gram-negative bacterial genera Pseudomonas and Azotobacter [4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. The function of alginate in the different organisms are various, and related to structure, protection and surface adhesion [9, 10, 11, 12]. Alginate is a copolymer of the two 1-4 linked epimers [13, 14, 15], and by changing the composition of the two monomers the epimerases fine-tune the properties of the polymer [16].

Main section 2

Whatevs...

References

1. Haug A and Larsen B. (1969). Biosynthesis of alginate. Epimerisation of D-mannuronic to L-guluronic acid residues in the polymer chain. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1969;192(3):557-9. DOI:10.1016/0304-4165(69)90414-0 |
2. Larsen B and Haug A. (1971). Biosynthesis of alginate. 1. Composition and structure of alginate produced by Azotobacter vinelandii (Lipman). Carbohydr Res. 1971;17(2):287-96. DOI:10.1016/s0008-6215(00)82536-7 |
3. Haug A and Larsen B. (1971). Biosynthesis of alginate. II. Polymannuronic acid C-5-epimerase from Azotobacter vinelandii (Lipman). Carbohydr Res. 1971;17(2):297-308. DOI:10.1016/s0008-6215(00)82537-9 |

4. Stanford, Edw C C. (1883) On algin: a new substance obtained from some of the commoner species of marine algae. R. Anderson. NLM ID: 101217546

5. Gorin, P. A. J. and Spencer, J. F. T. (1966) Exocellular alginic acid from Azotobacter vinelandii. Canadian Journal of Chemistry vol. 44, no. 9., pp. 993-998. [1]

6. Linker A and Jones RS. (1966). A new polysaccharide resembling alginic acid isolated from pseudomonads. J Biol Chem. 1966;241(16):3845-51. | Google Books | Open Library
7. Govan JR, Fyfe JA, and Jarman TR. (1981). Isolation of alginate-producing mutants of Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas putida and Pseudomonas mendocina. J Gen Microbiol. 1981;125(1):217-20. DOI:10.1099/00221287-125-1-217 |

8. Okazaki, M., K. and Furuya, K. Tsukayam and K. Nisizawa. (1982) Isolation and Identification of Alginic Acid from a Calcareous Red Alga Serraticardia maxima. Botanica Marina, vol. 25, no. 3., pp. 123-131. [1]

9. Painter, Terence J. (1983) Chapter 4 - Algal Polysaccharides. Edited by Gerald O. Aspinall. The Polysaccharides. New York: Academic Press. [1]

10. Campos M, Martínez-Salazar JM, Lloret L, Moreno S, Núñez C, Espín G, and Soberón-Chávez G. (1996). Characterization of the gene coding for GDP-mannose dehydrogenase (algD) from Azotobacter vinelandii. J Bacteriol. 1996;178(7):1793-9. DOI:10.1128/jb.178.7.1793-1799.1996 |
11. Pier GB, Coleman F, Grout M, Franklin M, and Ohman DE. (2001). Role of alginate O acetylation in resistance of mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa to opsonic phagocytosis. Infect Immun. 2001;69(3):1895-901. DOI:10.1128/IAI.69.3.1895-1901.2001 |
12. Harmsen M, Yang L, Pamp SJ, and Tolker-Nielsen T. (2010). An update on Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formation, tolerance, and dispersal. FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol. 2010;59(3):253-68. DOI:10.1111/j.1574-695X.2010.00690.x |

13. Hirst, E. L. and Jones, J. K. N and Jones, Winifred Osman. (1939) 389. The structure of alginic acid. Part I [in en]. Journal of the Chemical Society, The Royal Society of Chemistry. Vol. 0, pp. 1880–1885. [1]

14. FISCHER FG and DORFEL H. (1955). [Polyuronic acids in brown algae]. Hoppe Seylers Z Physiol Chem. 1955;302(4-6):186-203. | Google Books | Open Library

15. Drummond, D W and Hirst, E L and Percival, Elizabeth. (1962) 232. The constitution of alginic acid. Journal of the Chemical Society, The Royal Society of Chemistry. Vol. 0, pp. 1208–1216. [1]

16. Ertesvåg H, Høidal HK, Schjerven H, Svanem BI, and Valla S. (1999). Mannuronan C-5-epimerases and their application for in vitro and in vivo design of new alginates useful in biotechnology. Metab Eng. 1999;1(3):262-9. DOI:10.1006/mben.1999.0130 |
17. Cantarel BL, Coutinho PM, Rancurel C, Bernard T, Lombard V, and Henrissat B. (2009). The Carbohydrate-Active EnZymes database (CAZy): an expert resource for Glycogenomics. Nucleic Acids Res. 2009;37(Database issue):D233-8. DOI:10.1093/nar/gkn663 |

18. Davies, G.J. and Sinnott, M.L. (2008) Sorting the diverse: the sequence-based classifications of carbohydrate-active enzymes. The Biochemist, vol. 30, no. 4., pp. 26-32. Download PDF version.