Motivated by industrial demands and ongoing scientific discoveries continuous efforts are made to identify and create improved biocatalysts dedicated to plant biomass conversion. α-1,2 and α-1,3 arabinofuranosyl specific α-l-arabinofuranosidases (EC 3.2.1.55) are debranching enzymes catalyzing hydrolytic release of α-l-arabinofuranosyl residues, which decorate xylan or arabinan backbones in lignocellulosic and pectin constituents of plant cell walls. The CAZy database classifies α-l-arabinofuranosidases in Glycoside Hydrolase (GH) families GH2, GH3, GH43, GH51, GH54 and GH62. Only GH62 contains exclusively α-l-arabinofuranosidases and these are of fungal and bacterial origin. Twenty-two GH62 enzymes out of 223 entries in the CAZy database have been characterized and very recently new knowledge was acquired with regard to crystal structures, substrate specificities, and phylogenetics, which overall provides novel insights into structure/function relationships of GH62. Overall GH62 α-l-arabinofuranosidases are believed to play important roles in nature by acting in synergy with several cell wall degrading enzymes and members of GH62 represent promising candidates for biotechnological improvements of biofuel production and in various biorefinery applications.

受工业需求和不断进行的科学发现的激励，人们不断努力寻找并创造出专门用于植物生物量转化的改良生物催化剂。α-1,2和α-1,3阿拉伯呋喃糖特定α-升-arabinofuranosidases（EC 3.2.1.55）的脱支酶催化α-的水解释放升-arabinofuranosyl残基，其在装饰的木质纤维素和果胶组分木聚糖或阿拉伯聚糖主链植物细胞壁。CAZy数据库将糖苷水解酶（GH）家族GH2，GH3，GH43，GH51，GH54和GH62中的α- 1-阿拉伯呋喃糖苷酶分类。仅GH62仅包含α- l-阿拉伯呋喃糖苷酶，它们是真菌和细菌来源的。已经对CAZy数据库的223个条目中的22种GH62酶进行了表征，并且最近获得了有关晶体结构，底物特异性和系统发育学的新知识，这些知识为GH62的结构/功能关系提供了新的见识。总体GH62α-升-arabinofuranosidases被认为通过协同作用与几个细胞壁降解酶和GH62的成员代表希望的候选用于生产生物燃料的生物技术的改进和各种生物炼制应用发挥大自然重要作用。