The enzymatic digestion of cellulose entails intimate involvement of cellobiohydrolases, whose characteristic active-center tunnel contributes to a processive degradation of the polysaccharide. The cellobiohydrolase Cel6A displays an active site within a tunnel formed by two extended loops, which are known to open and close in response to ligand binding. Here we present five structures of wild-type and mutant forms of Cel6A from Humicola insolens in complex with nonhydrolyzable thio-oligosaccharides, at resolutions from 1.7-1.1 A, dissecting the structural accommodation of a processing substrate chain through the active center during hydrolysis. Movement of ligand is facilitated by extensive solvent-mediated interactions and through flexibility in the hydrophobic surfaces provided by a sheath of tryptophan residues.

This report describes an efficient chemoenzymatic synthesis of a variety of regioselectively modified β(1→4)-oligo- and -polysaccharides. This successful approach was based on:  (i) the use of a “glycosynthase” which is a Glu-197-Ala nucleophile mutant of the retaining cellulase endoglucanase I (Cel7B) from Humicola insolens and (ii) the rational design of modified acceptor and donor molecules through a careful examination of information given by the X-ray structures of wild type and mutated enzymes. The mutant was able to catalyze, in high yield, the regio- and stereoselective glycosylation of α-glycobiosyl fluorides both unsubstituted and modified with various mono- and disaccharide acceptors, as well as the polymerization of these donors through a single-step inverting mechanism.