Oligosaccharides biocatalytic synthesis

Palcic, M. (1999) Biocatalytic synthesis of oligosaccharides. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 10, 616-624. 

In contrast to the template-driven biosynthesis of nucleic acids and proteins, the biosynthesis of carbohydrates is defined as the cooperation of glycosyltransfer-ase machinery and their cofactors, sugar nucleotides. Chemical methods often require multiple protection-deprotection steps and long synthetic routes. As could be anticipated, the chemical synthesis of oligosaccharides is not an attractive option to industrial and scientific communities (105). Biocatalytic approaches employing enzymes or genetically engineered whole cells are, however, powerful and complementary alternatives to chemical methods (25). 

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