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Welcome to CAZypedia! The Living Encyclopedia of Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes. Now containing the following Curator Approved content: 141 Glycoside Hydrolase (GH) Family pages, 17 Polysaccharide Lyase (PL) Family pages, 8 Carbohydrate Esterase (CE) Family pages, 7 Auxiliary Activity (AA) Family pages, 6 Glycosyltransferase (GT) Family pages, 65 Carbohydrate Binding Module (CBM) Family pages, and 24 Lexicon pages!

Purpose CAZypedia has been initiated as a community-driven resource to assemble a comprehensive encyclopedia of the "CAZymes," the carbohydrate-active enzymes and associated carbohydrate-binding modules involved in the synthesis and degradation of complex carbohydrates. CAZypedia is inspired by, and closely connected with, the actively curated CAZy Database. It's probably fair to say that CAZypedians are, like our friends at the CAZy DB, a group of "biocurators." If you are new to the CAZyme classification, "Sorting the Diverse" by Professors Gideon Davies and Michael Sinnott (The Biochemist, 2008, vol. 30, part 4, pp. 26-32) provides an excellent introduction and historical perspective. Content CAZypedia initially focussed on the Glycoside Hydrolase Families defined in the CAZy Database, and we continue to strive for complete coverage of this diverse class of enzymes. Other catabolic and anabolic CAZymes, as well as Auxiliary redox enzymes and non-catalytic Carbohydrate Binding Modules, continue to be incorporated as interest and engagement from the scientific community grows. In addition, there is a Lexicon of terms relevant to CAZymes and carbohydrate chemistry. These and other aspects of CAZypedia's content can be accessed through the menus on the left side of each page. How CAZypedia works CAZypedia is built on authoring and editing principles similar to those of other expert-based online encyclopedias (cf. Citizendium, Scholarpedia). All contributors to CAZypedia, from the Authors to the Board of Curators, are experts in the field. Transparency is achieved through the use of contributors' real names and published biographies in CAZypedia. Individual entries in CAZypedia are managed by Responsible Curators, who are responsible for selecting expert Authors and coordinating author contributions on individual pages. Selection of Responsible Curators, based on their specialist expertise and ability to participate in the active maintenance of entry content, is handled by the Senior Curators. More information on CAZypedia's content and editorial policies is available here. A short lecture and a set of slides presenting CAZypedia are freely available here. An article describing CAZypedia's genesis and evolution has been published in the journal Glycobiology. Contact If you would like to get involved with CAZypedia or suggest an improvement, please contact the Board of Curators.

Latest news 23 January 2026: An oldie, but a goodie: As our first page of the new year, the Glycoside Hydrolase Family 71 page, written by Antonielle Vieira Monclaro, was Curator Approved by Johan Larsbrink today. GH71 is a family of mostly fungal alpha-1,3-glucanases that was established and subjected to mechanistic characterization in the early 2000s. More recently in 2025, the Yano and Larsbrink groups independently presented the first crystal structures of GH71 members (from Schizosaccharomyces and Aspergillus, respectively). Antonielle wrote an excellent overview of GH71, which you should definitely check out here. 8 December 2025: Just in time for the holidays: The Glycosyltransferase Family 138 page by Author Wei Peng and Responsible Curator Kim Orth was Curator Approved today. GT138 is small family of plant-associated bacterial members. The archetype from Pseudomonas syringae, AvrB, is a rhamnosyl transferase that glycosylates the plant host protein RIN4 to effect programmed cell death (hypersensitive response). Also notable, AvrB has an unusual protein fold among glycosyltransferases, based upon a "Fido" domain. GT138 represents one of a small, but hopefully growing, number of GT pages in CAZypedia, whose unique features you should read more about here. 31 October 2025: A spooktacular addition to the CAZypedia family! Come and say 'Boo!' to the frighteningly well written CBM13 CAZypedia page. The CBM13 family is a lectin-like CBM family. Its first characterized members were lectins, including the B chain from the highly toxic ricin toxin from Ricinus communis. This spine tingling read was authored by Scott Mazurkewich and Lauren McKee who also acted as responsible curator. Come and visit the scariest of CAZypedia CBM pages, here!... if you dare... 29 July 2025: CBM91 is in the news! The xylan binding CBM91 family CAZypedia page is up and running. Appended to mainly GH43 xylanases this CBM91 family drives interaction with substrate. The CBM91 page was authored by Daichi Ito who also discovered the initial xylan-binding function which resulted in the creation of the CBM91 CAZy family. Read up on this industrially interesting CBM91 family here. > older news

Dedication CAZypedia is dedicated to the late Prof. Bruce Stone, whose enthusiasm to create a comprehensive encyclopedia of carbohydrate-active enzymes was essential in the genesis of this project.