Recent Advances in Carbohydrate Chemical and Enzymatic Syntheses

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Background

Complex carbohydrates and polysaccharides are found across all domains of life, and it is now widely recognized that they play a host of important roles in biology and health. Despite their importance, our understanding of the structure-function properties of carbohydrates, and hence our ability to harness them as therapeutics, is hampered by the difficulty in producing pure material for study and development. Unlike other classes of biopolymers, biological sources produce only small amounts of carbohydrates as intractable mixtures, leaving synthesis as the only avenue for the production of pure material and sufficient amounts. Although we are still far from a universal approach to carbohydrate synthesis, tremendous advances have been made over the course of the past decade. This Research Topic will highlight the most recent developments in the field with a focus on how they can be used to develop new technologies.

The goals of this collection are to both address new approaches to carbohydrate synthesis (both chemical and enzymatic) and identify new areas where more research is needed. In the context of this topic, we will focus on current cutting edge challenges in the field. One theme we wish to address is to update the reader on new developments in automated synthesis. In addition, another area of major focus will be to emphasize cutting edge new chemistries for regio- and diastereoselective transformations in carbohydrate synthesis and the discovery of novel biocatalysts for chemo-enzymatic approaches. When possible, we will place a special emphasis on approaches to understudied classes of carbohydrates, such as those found in prokaryotes and secondary metabolites. Through a collection of both reviews and original research articles, we hope to both highlight new developments to current practitioners and provide a backdrop for newcomers who are interested in expanding their research into this exciting field.

We encourage submissions of Original Research and Review articles that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
• New stereoselective glycosylation reactions for both O- and C-linked carbohydrate synthesis. Special emphasis will be placed on methods where selectivity does not rely on the protecting group patterns on the coupling partners but is rather controlled by the glycosylation promoter.
• New developments in the enzymatic synthesis of biomedically relevant oligosaccharides, glycoconjugates, and glycoproteins with a special emphasis on vaccine development.
• Approaches for the regioselective functionalization of monosaccharides and de novo approaches for the synthesis of rare sugars from prokaryotes and bioactive small molecules.
• New and efficient synthetic approaches to bacterial oligosaccharides of biomedical interest.
• Mechanistic studies directed at understanding the physical organic basis for selectivity in chemical and enzymatic glycosylation reactions.
• Cutting edge approaches to automating both chemical and enzymatic oligosaccharide synthesis, with a special emphasis on enabling technologies.

Keywords: Carbohydrates, Oligosaccharides, Synthesis, Organic chemistry, Biological chemistry

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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