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Advances in applications, metabolism, and biotechnological production of L-xylulose

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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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Correspondence to Tao Zhang.

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The authors certify that this manuscript has not been published previously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images), and no data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the authors’ own. Consent to submit has been received explicitly from all the authors listed. And authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.

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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

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