Reducing end xylose-releasing exooligoxylanase (Rex, EC 3.2.1.156) is an inverting GH that hydrolyzes xylooligosaccharides (>X 3 ) to release X 1 at their reducing end. The wild-type enzyme exhibited the Hehre resynthesis hydrolysis mechanism, in which ␣-X 2 F was hydrolyzed to X 2 and HF in the presence of X 1 as an acceptor molecule. However, the transglycosidation product (X 3 ) was not detectable in the reaction. To convert reducing end xylosereleasing exooligoxylanase to glycosynthase, derivatives with mutations in the catalytic base (Asp-263) were constructed by saturation random mutagenesis. Nine amino acid residue mutants (Asp-263 to Gly, Ala, Val, Thr, Leu, Asn, Cys, Pro, or Ser) were found to possess glycosynthase activity forming X 3 from ␣-X 2 F and X 1 . Among them, D263C showed the highest level of X 3 production, and D263N exhibited the fastest consumption of ␣-X 2 F. The D263C mutant showed 10-fold lower hydrolytic activity than D263N, resulting in the highest yield of X 3 . X 2 was formed from the early stage of the reaction of the D263C mutant, indicating that a portion of the X 3 formed by condensation was hydrolyzed before its release from the enzyme. To acquire glycosynthase activity from inverting enzymes, it is important to minimize the decrease in F ؊ -releasing activity while maximizing the decrease in the hydrolytic activity. The present study expands the possibility of conversion of glycosynthases from inverting enzymes.Glycoside hydrolases (GH) 2 are generally categorized into two types, retaining and inverting enzymes, based on changes in the anomeric configurations during the reactions (1-5). The reaction mechanisms of typical retaining and inverting enzymes are illustrated in Fig. 1. Both types of enzyme have two acidic catalytic residues acting as a general acid (a proton donor) and a general base (a nucleophile). In the retaining GH reaction, first, in concert, the general acid donates a proton to the glycosyl oxygen atom, and the nucleophile attacks the anomeric center, producing a covalent-bound intermediate of the nucleophile with Walden inversion. Next, the intermediate undergoes inverting hydrolysis. The reaction of the inverting GH is similar but differs in the reagent attacking the anomeric center; in this case, a water molecule activated by the catalytic base attacks the anomeric center to hydrolyze the glycoside with anomeric inversion.In 1979, Hehre et al. (6) reported that -amylase hydrolyzed -maltosyl fluoride, the opposite anomer of the glycosides to be hydrolyzed, into maltose and fluoride ions. Later, various inverting enzymes were shown to hydrolyze the "wrong" glycosyl fluorides (7-10), suggesting that the reaction is common among inverting GHs. Instead of simple hydrolysis, the reaction mechanism consists of two steps. In the first step a new glycoside of the correct anomer forms from the wrong glycosyl fluoride and an acceptor by Walden inversion. The new glycoside is then hydrolyzed with anomeric inversion at the same site on the enzyme before it is release...