Endo--N-acetylglucosaminidase from Mucor hiemalis (Endo-M), a family 85 glycoside hydrolase, acts on the 1,4 linkage of N,N-diacetylchitobiose moiety in the N-linked glycans of glycoproteins and catalyzes not only the hydrolysis reaction but also the transglycosylation reaction that transfers the releasing sugar chain to an acceptor other than water to form a new glycosidic linkage. The transglycosylation activity of Endo-M holds a great promise for the chemo-enzymatic synthesis and glycoengineering of glycoproteins, but the inherent hydrolytic activity for product hydrolysis and low transglycosylation have hampered its broad applications. This paper describes the sitedirected mutagenesis on residues in the putative catalytic region of Endo-M to generate mutants with superior transglycosylation activity. Two interesting mutants were discovered. The Y217F mutant was found to possess much enhanced transglycosylation activity and yet much diminished hydrolytic activity in comparison with the wild-type Endo-M. Kinetic analyses revealed that the K m value of Y217F for an acceptor substrate 4-methylumbelliferyl--D-N-acetylglucosaminide was only one-tenth of that of the wild-type, implicating a much higher affinity of Y217F for the acceptor substrate than the wild-type. The other mutant, N175A, acts like a glycosynthase. It was found that mutation at Asn 175 "knocked out" the hydrolytic activity, but the mutant was able to take the highly active sugar oxazolines (the transition state mimics) as donor substrates for transglycosylation. This is the first glycosynthase derived from endo--N-acetylglucosaminidases that proceed via a substrate-assisted mechanism. Our findings provide further insights on the substrate-assisted mechanism of GH85. The usefulness of the novel glycosynthase was exemplified by the efficient synthesis of a human immunodeficiency virus, type 1 (HIV-1) glycopeptide with potent anti-HIV activity.Endo--N-acetylglucosaminidase (EC 3.2.1.96) (ENGase) 3 catalyzes hydrolysis of the 1,4-glycosidic linkage of the N,NЈ-diacetylchitobiose moiety in the core of asparagine-linked glycan of various glycoproteins and glycopeptides. This type of enzyme is widely distributed in animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria. Several bacterial enzymes, such as Endo-H from Streptomyces plicatus (1) and Endo-F 1 from Flavobacterium meningosepticum (2), were cloned and classified into glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 18 in the CAZy data base (available on the World Wide Web), which may share a common evolutional origin with GH18 chitinases. The other ENGases are distinct from the enzymes of the GH18 chitinase family and are classified into the GH family 85. We and others have previously reported that several ENGases of the GH85 family showed significant transglycosylation activity (i.e. the ability to transfer the releasing glycan to an acceptor other than water to form a new glycosidic linkage) (3-6). These ENGases include Endo-M from Mucor hiemalis (3), Endo-A from Arthrobactor protophormiae (4), Endo-CE from Caenorhabditi...