Abstract
L-Xylulose is an intermediate in certain metabolic pathways and is classified as a rare sugar. It shows important physiological effects such as acting as an inhibitor of α-glucosidase and decreasing blood glucose, and it can be employed to produce other significant rare sugars, such as L-ribose and L-xylose which contribute to the production of antiviral drugs. Chemical synthesis of L-xylulose was performed, but it is difficult and low yielding. The biotransformation from xylitol to L-xylulose by xylitol 4-dehydrogenase was studied intensively. This review describes the occurrence of L-xylulose in certain metabolic pathways, its bioproduction, and application potential.
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Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the 863 project of China (No. 2013AA102102) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SKLF-ZZA-201509).
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Meng, Q., Zhang, T., Jiang, B. et al. Advances in applications, metabolism, and biotechnological production of L-xylulose. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 535–540 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-7087-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-7087-y