Abstract
Glucansucrases and branching sucrases are classified in the family 70 of glycoside hydrolases. They are produced by lactic acid bacteria occupying very diverse ecological niches (soil, buccal cavity, sourdough, intestine, dairy products, etc.). Usually secreted by their producer organisms, they are involved in the synthesis of α-glucans from sucrose substrate. They contribute to cell protection while promoting adhesion and colonization of different biotopes. Dextran, an α-1,6 linked linear α-glucan, was the first microbial polysaccharide commercialized for medical applications. Advances in the discovery and characterization of these enzymes have remarkably enriched the available diversity with new catalysts. Research into their molecular mechanisms has highlighted important features governing their peculiarities thus opening up many opportunities for engineering these catalysts to provide new routes for the transformation of sucrose into value-added molecules. This article reviews these different aspects with the ambition to show how they constitute the basis for promising future developments.
Highlights
Polymers are used as basic materials for the manufacture of innumerable daily life products, as well as more sophisticated material in medicine, diagnostics and fine chemistry
They are naturally very efficient transglucosylases and do not require expensive nucleotide-activated sugars (NDP-sugar) as substrate for the synthesis of very high molar mass polymers [7,20,23,24,25,26]. They are rather promiscuous and catalyze transglucosylation from sucrose onto a broad range of acceptors, the recognition and efficiency of the reaction being dependent on the enzyme selectivity [26,27]
These properties are exploited to produce functional oligosaccharides [28] in particular isomaltooligosaccharides [29], oligoalternans [30,31,32,33], oligoreuterans with α1,6 and α-1,4 linkages [34] or α-1,2 branched gluco oligosaccharides [35,36,37,38,39] commercialized under the brand name BioEcolans® (Solabia) for food, healthcare or cosmetic applications
Summary
Polymers are used as basic materials for the manufacture of innumerable daily life products, as well as more sophisticated material in medicine, diagnostics and fine chemistry. They are rather promiscuous and catalyze transglucosylation from sucrose onto a broad range of acceptors (sugars or unnatural hydroxylated molecules), the recognition and efficiency of the reaction being dependent on the enzyme selectivity [26,27] These properties are exploited to produce functional oligosaccharides [28] in particular isomaltooligosaccharides [29], oligoalternans (oligosaccharides with alternating α-1,6 and α-1,3 linkages) [30,31,32,33], oligoreuterans with α1,6 and α-1,4 linkages [34] or α-1,2 branched gluco oligosaccharides [35,36,37,38,39] commercialized under the brand name BioEcolans® (Solabia) for food, healthcare or cosmetic applications. This review places the focus on these various aspects and intends to cover the most recent and exciting developments
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