Recent development of phosphorylases possessing large potential for oligosaccharide synthesis

Phosphorylases are one group of carbohydrate active enzymes involved in the cleavage and formation of glycosidic linkages together with glycoside hydrolases and sugar nucleotide-dependent glycosyltransferases. Noticeably, the catalyzed phosphorolysis is reversible, making phosphorylases suitable catalysts for efficient synthesis of particular oligosaccharides from a donor sugar 1-phosphate and suitable carbohydrate acceptors with strict regioselectivity. Although utilization of phosphorylases for oligosaccharide synthesis has been limited because only few different enzymes are known, recently the number of reported phosphorylases has gradually increased, providing the variation making these enzymes useful tools for efficient synthesis of diverse oligosaccharides.