The effect of arabinoxylan structure on xylanase activity was investigated using a range of water-soluble and water-insoluble substrates isolated from wheat flour and several xylanases from families 10 and 11 of the glycoside hydrolases. The arabinose content of the substrates affected the activity in a linear manner related to the arabinose:xylose ratio and to different extents depending on the specificity of the xylanase. The soluble/insoluble feature of the substrates had a strong impact on the enzymatic activity and different selectivities (activity on insoluble arabinoxylan vs. activity on soluble arabinoxylan) were observed. There was no relationship between specificity and selectivity of a given xylanase. (c) 2006 Society of Chemical Industry