Glycoside hydrolyses, as their name implies, are enzymes able to remove sugars. Sugars found on the surface of blood are responsible for their antigenic properties noted with A, B, O type blood. It follows that removal of the sugars responsile for their antigenicity should produce a "universal blood." The terminal trisaccharides on the surface of blood contain a moiety of either an N-acetylgalactosamine linked in an alpha 1,3 configuration to fucose in A type blood or galactose linked in a similar manner to fucose in B type blood. Many bacteria utilize glycoside hydrolases as a means to break down complex carbohydrate polymers. Genes whose products could potentially produce an alpha-galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.22) and alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase (EC 3.2.1.49) have been identified and cloned. Their activity towards these substrates and their utility on A and B-type blood, respectively, will be analyzed.

Isolation of glycoside hydrolases towards the goal of universal blood

256th National Meeting (2018)

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