α-Glucan phosphorylase and its use in carbohydrate engineering

Amylose is expected to be a functional biomaterial for various industries but is not produced on an industrial scale, since the purification of natural amylose from starch is difficult. The authors have recently established a system to produce synthetic amylose from either sucrose or cellobiose using the combined action of alpha-glucan phosphorylase (EC 2.4.1.1) together with sucrose phosphorylase (EC 2.4.1.7) or cellobiose phosphorylase (EC 2.4.1.20). In these combined enzymic systems, alpha-glucan phosphorylase is a key enzyme. This paper summarises the authors' work to engineer practical alpha-glucan phosphorylase for industrial processes and its use in the enzymatic synthesis of essentially linear amylose and other glucose polymers. (c) 2006 Society of Chemical Industry