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l-Ribose isomerase and mannose-6-phosphate isomerase: properties and applications for l-ribose production

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Abstract

l-Ribose is a synthetic l-form monosaccharide. It is a building block of many novel nucleotide analog anti-viral drugs. Bio-production of l-ribose relies on a two-step reaction: (i) conversion of l-arabinose to l-ribulose by the catalytic action of l-arabinose isomerase (l-AI) and (ii) conversion of l-ribulose to l-ribose by the catalytic action of l-ribose isomerase (l-RI, EC 5.3.1.B3) or mannose-6-phosphate isomerase (MPI, EC 5.3.1.8, alternately named as phosphomannose isomerase). Between the two enzymes, l-RI is a rare enzyme that was discovered in 1996 by Professor Izumori’s group, whereas MPI is an essential enzyme in metabolic pathways in humans and microorganisms. Recent studies have focused on their potentials for industrial production of l-ribose. This review summarizes the applications of l-RI and MPI for l-ribose production.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Food Science and Light Industry, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China

    Zheng Xu, Yuanyuan Sha, Chao Liu, Sha Li, Jinfeng Liang & Hong Xu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing, China

    Zheng Xu, Yuanyuan Sha, Chao Liu, Sha Li, Jinfeng Liang & Hong Xu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Bio-Organic and Natural Products Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Jiahai Zhou

  4. Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM), Nanjing, China

    Hong Xu

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  1. Zheng Xu
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  2. Yuanyuan Sha
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  3. Chao Liu
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  4. Sha Li
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  5. Jinfeng Liang
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Correspondence to Hong Xu.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 31400053 to Z. Xu), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (no. BK20140933 to Z. Xu), the Jiangsu Province Science and Technology Support Plan Project (no. BE2015366 to H. Xu), the Science and Technology Program of Joint Innovation Fund—A Prospective Joint Research Project in Jiangsu Province (no. BY2014005-10 to J.F. Liang), and the State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering (no. KL15-09 to J. Zhou).

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Xu, Z., Sha, Y., Liu, C. et al. l-Ribose isomerase and mannose-6-phosphate isomerase: properties and applications for l-ribose production. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 9003–9011 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7834-8

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