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l-Rhamnose isomerase and its use for biotechnological production of rare sugars

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Abstract

l-Rhamnose isomerase (L-RI, EC 5.3.1.14), catalyzing the isomerization between l-rhamnose and l-rhamnulose, plays an important role in microbial l-rhamnose metabolism and thus occurs in a wide range of microorganisms. It attracts more and more attention because of its broad substrate specificity and its great potential in enzymatic production of various rare sugars. In this article, the enzymatic properties of various reported L-RIs were compared in detail, and their applications in the production of l-rhamnulose and various rare sugars including d-allose, d-gulose, l-lyxose, l-mannose, l-talose, and l-galactose were also reviewed.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the NSFC Project (No. 21276001), the 863 Project (No. 2013AA102102), the Support Project of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20130001 and 2015-SWYY-009), and the project of Outstanding Scientific and Technological Innovation Group of Jiangsu Province (Jing Wu).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, 214122, China

    Wei Xu, Wenli Zhang, Tao Zhang, Bo Jiang & Wanmeng Mu

  2. Synergetic Innovation Center of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China

    Wanmeng Mu

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  1. Wei Xu
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  2. Wenli Zhang
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  3. Tao Zhang
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  4. Bo Jiang
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Correspondence to Wanmeng Mu.

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Xu, W., Zhang, W., Zhang, T. et al. l-Rhamnose isomerase and its use for biotechnological production of rare sugars. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 2985–2992 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7369-z

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