State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Puzhu South Road 30#, Nanjing, 211800, People's Republic of China.
Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM), Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, People's Republic of China.
Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2019 Apr;103(8):3289-3295. doi: 10.1007/s00253-019-09718-x. Epub 2019 Mar 8.
Chitinases are hydrolases that catalyze the cleavage of the β-1,4-O-glycosidic linkages in chitin, a polysaccharide abundantly found in nature. Although numerous chitinolytic enzymes have been studied in detail, relatively little is known about chitinases capable of broad specificity. Broad-specificity chitinases are a sort of novel chitinases possessing two or three different catalytic activities among exochitinase, endochitinase, and N-acetylglucosaminidase. In the light of the difference of module composition and catalytic mechanism, the broad-specificity chitinases included two broad categories, broad-specificity chitinases with a single catalytic domain or multi-catalytic domains. This broad-specificity chitinases have great potential in chitin conversion. In this review, we summarize all reported cases of broad-specificity chitinases and provide an overview of the recent findings on their origin, characterization, catalytic mechanism, and potential application. Moreover, in-depth study into these chitinases could contribute to our understanding of other broad-specificity enzymes which may have some benefits on progress of biotechnology.
几丁质酶是一种水解酶，能够催化几丁质中β-1,4-O-糖苷键的裂解，几丁质是自然界中丰富存在的一种多糖。虽然已经详细研究了许多几丁质酶，但对具有广泛特异性的几丁质酶知之甚少。广谱性几丁质酶是一种新型的几丁质酶，具有外切几丁质酶、内切几丁质酶和 N-乙酰氨基葡萄糖苷酶三种不同的催化活性。根据结构域组成和催化机制的不同，广谱性几丁质酶可分为两类，即具有单一催化结构域或多催化结构域的广谱性几丁质酶。这些广谱性几丁质酶在几丁质转化方面具有巨大的潜力。在这篇综述中，我们总结了所有报道的广谱性几丁质酶，并概述了它们的起源、特性、催化机制和潜在应用的最新发现。此外，对这些几丁质酶的深入研究有助于我们理解其他具有广泛特异性的酶，这可能对生物技术的发展有一定的益处。
