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Insights into promiscuous chitosanases: the known and the unknown

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Abstract

Chitosanase, a glycoside hydrolase (GH), catalyzes the cleavage of β-1,4-glycosidic bonds in polysaccharides and is widely distributed in nature. Many organisms produce chitosanases, and numerous chitosanases in the GH families have been intensely studied. The reported chitosanases mainly cleaved the inter-glucosamine glycosidic bonds, while substrate specificity is not strictly unique due to the existence of bifunctional or multifunctional activity profiles. The promiscuity of chitosanases is essential for the different pathways of biomass polysaccharide conversion and understanding of the chitosanase evolutionary process. However, the reviews for this aspect are completely unknown. This review provides an overview of the promiscuous activities, also considering the substrate and product specificity of chitosanases observed to date. These contribute to important implications for the future discovery and research of promiscuous chitosanases and applications related to biomass conversion.

Key points

• The promiscuity of chitosanases is reviewed for the first time.

• The current review provides insights into the substrate specificity of chitosanases.

• The mode-product relationship and prospect of promiscuous chitosanases are highlighted.

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Funding

The authors received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U21A20271, 31922072) and China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA (CARS-48).

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  1. College of Food Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, No. 5 Yushan Road, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Haipeng Su, Jianan Sun, Zhenrong Jia, Hongjun Zhao & Xiangzhao Mao

  2. Laboratory for Marine Drugs and Bioproducts, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266237, China

    Xiangzhao Mao

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  1. Haipeng Su
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  2. Jianan Sun
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  3. Zhenrong Jia
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  4. Hongjun Zhao
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Contributions

H.P.S and X.Z.M conceived and designed the review. H.P.S and H.J.Z drafted the manuscript. H.P.S and J.S collected the data on various topics. H.P.S, J.S, and Z.R.J wrote the manuscript. X.Z.M contributed to the revision of the manuscript. The authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiangzhao Mao.

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Su, H., Sun, J., Jia, Z. et al. Insights into promiscuous chitosanases: the known and the unknown. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 106, 6887–6898 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-022-12198-1

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