News CAZy links families to Prozomix database

Over the last 15 years the CAZy (Carbohydrate-Active EnZymes)database (http://www.cazy.org/), that describes the families of structurally-related catalytic and carbohydrate-binding modules (or functional domains) of enzymes that degrade, modify, or create glycosidic bonds, has been continually developed.  As family membership is based on the analysis of amino acid sequence, the CAZy database continues to prove especially invaluable as a research tool with respect to the ever increasing amount of genomic information relating to carbohydrate metabolism.  Not surprisingly then, CAZy nomenclature achieved rapid adoption by the research community and has become a norm when describing carbohydrate-active enzymes.

For these reasons we are especially delighted to note that the most recent CAZy release (09/03/09 update), offers links from each family of glycoside hydrolase (GH), glycosyltransferase (GT), polysaccharide lyase (PL), carbohydrate esterase (CE), and carbohydrate binding module (CBM), for which we offer a product, directly to a Prozomix product listing for those families (see example).  Such links, designed to facilitate access to commercially available Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes using CAZy nomenclature, were in part enabled by the policy of Prozomix to make amino acid sequences freely available for all our recombinant products.  Indeed, in addition to primary sequence availability and comprehensive product filtering options (for example down to the recently defined CAZy subfamily level – see GH13 web page for an example), the Prozomix product database is also BLAST searchable, offering the most transparent view of recombinant enzyme and protein products.

For further information regarding CAZy contact: cazy@afmb.univ-mrs.fr

For further information regarding Prozomix contact: info@prozomix.com