ABSTRACT
Demanding and highly specific chemical procedures for • glycosylationsHarsh methods leading to decomposition and generally lower • yieldsWrong anomers are formed by chemical glycosylation, which • requires tedious separationsHeavy metal catalysts are employed, which is not acceptable • for products with potential use in the pharmaceutical area or in nutrition due to toxicity and high priceMost prominent is the use of glycosyltransferases (GT) in synthesis but also the appropriate application of “glycosylhydrolases” (glycosidases) in the synthetic direction is of considerable interest. This subject has been of growing interest for preparative carbohydrate chemistry in the recent decades, and thus has been reviewed several times (Nilsson, 1988; Monsan et al., 1989; Wong and Whitesides, 1994; Wong et al., 1995; Thiem, 1995; Nilsson et al., 1996; Kren and Thiem, 1997; Vocadlo and Withers, 2000; Shoda, 2001; Ajisaka, 2001; Ajisaka and Yamamoto, 2002; Wong, 2002).
