Toward Automated Enzymatic Synthesis of Oligosaccharides

Oligosaccharides together with oligonucleotides and oligopeptides comprise the three major classes of natural biopolymers. Automated systems for oligonucleotide and oligopeptide synthesis have significantly advanced developments in biological science by allowing nonspecialists to rapidly and easily access these biopolymers. Researchers have endeavored for decades to develop a comparable general automated system to synthesize oligosaccharides. Such a system would have a revolutionary impact on the understanding of the roles of glycans in biological systems. The main challenge to achieving automated synthesis is the lack of general synthetic methods for routine synthesis of glycans. Currently, the two main methods to access homogeneous glycans and glycoconjugates are chemical synthesis and enzymatic synthesis. Enzymatic glycosylation can proceed stereo- and regiospecifically without protecting group manipulations. Moreover, the reaction conditions of enzyme-catalyzed glycosylations are extremely mild when c...