There are many characterised
protein families
A protein family is a group of evolutionarily related proteins. In many cases, a protein family has a corresponding gene family, in which each gene encodes a corresponding protein with a 1:1 relationship. The term "protein family" should not be ...
with
Glycoside hydrolase
Glycoside hydrolases (also called glycosidases or glycosyl hydrolases) catalyze the hydrolysis of glycosidic bonds in complex sugars. They are extremely common enzymes with roles in nature including degradation of biomass such as cellulose (cel ...
activity . These enzymes hydrolyse the glycosidic bond between two or more carbohydrates, or between a carbohydrate and a non-carbohydrate moiety. Families are defined based on their
sequence similarity
Sequence homology is the biological homology between DNA, RNA, or protein sequences, defined in terms of shared ancestry in the evolutionary history of life. Two segments of DNA can have shared ancestry because of three phenomena: either a spec ...
.
This classification is available on the
CAZy
CAZy is a database of Carbohydrate-Active enZYmes (CAZymes). The database contains a classification and associated information about enzymes involved in the synthesis, metabolism, and recognition of complex carbohydrates, i.e. disaccharides, olig ...
(CArbohydrate-Active EnZymes) web site.
[{{cite journal, vauthors=Cantarel BL, Coutinho PM, Rancurel C, Bernard T, Lombard V, Henrissat B, date=January 2009, title=The Carbohydrate-Active EnZymes database (CAZy): an expert resource for Glycogenomics, url=, journal=Nucleic Acids Res., volume=37, issue=Database issue, pages=D233–8, doi=10.1093/nar/gkn663, issn=, pmc=2686590, pmid=18838391] Because the fold of proteins is better conserved than their sequences, some of the families can be grouped into 'clans' (
superfamilies). As of October 2011, CAZy includes 128 families of glycosyl hydrolases, grouped into 14 clans.
References
EC 3.2.1
Hydrolases
Protein domains
Protein families