Carbohydrate-active enzymes database (CAZy)

Carbohydrate-active enzymes database (CAZy) provides a sequence-based classification and curated repository that links carbohydrate-active enzyme sequences to their specificities and three-dimensional structures to support analysis of enzyme function, structure, and carbohydrate metabolism.

Key Features:

• Sequence-based classification system: links enzyme sequences with annotated specificities and mapped three-dimensional structures and is continuously updated from the scientific literature.
• Family and module-based categorization: categorizes CAZymes into families and subfamilies based on structural similarities in catalytic and carbohydrate-binding modules.
• Curated functional and structural annotations: provides curated information about enzyme specificities and structural details derived from crystallographic studies.
• Crystallographic complex information: reports crystallographic complexes of CAZymes with carbohydrate ligands including their experimental resolution.
• Stable nomenclature: establishes and maintains a stable classification and naming scheme for carbohydrate-active enzymes to standardize communication.

Scientific Applications:

• Enzymology: supports enzymologists by providing curated enzyme specificities and structural details for mechanistic and comparative studies.
• Structural analysis of enzyme–ligand interactions: enables analysis of CAZyme–carbohydrate interactions using mapped three-dimensional structures and reported crystallographic resolutions.
• Genomic and metagenomic annotation: facilitates annotation and classification of CAZymes in genomes and metagenomes via family and subfamily assignments.
• Nomenclature standardization: provides a stable naming framework to harmonize reporting and comparison of carbohydrate-active enzymes across studies.
• Bioinformatics functional inference: allows linking sequence data to putative function and structure for computational analyses.

Methodology:

Uses a sequence-based classification that maps sequences to annotated specificities and three-dimensional structures; categorizes enzymes into families and subfamilies based on structural similarities of catalytic and carbohydrate-binding modules and records crystallographic complex resolutions.