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Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biochemistry, by Michael L. Sinnott

Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biochemistry represents a significant, single-author, synthesis of knowledge weighing in at 748 pages and containing only seven chapters. The author, Professor Michael Sinnott, has contributed many classic research papers in the field of the carbohydrate reactivity pertaining to the details of glycosyl hydrolase mechanism (1), the kinetic characterization of enzyme activity in evolving systems (2) and the preservation of knowledge in its physical forms (3). This text extends his prior wide-ranging reviews of the mechanisms of carbohydrate-active enzymes (4, 5), adopting a more tutorial approach. It represents, in the main, a detailed consideration of the literature till the end of 2006. Chapters 1 and 2 contain a conventional introduction to the structure and conformation of monosaccharides, with mutarotation being dealt with in detail. Chapter 3 focuses on the physical organic chemistry of nucleophilic substitution at the anomeric centre. It presages Chapter 5’s extensive treatment of enzyme-catalyzed glycosyl transfer. In between, Chapter 4 deals with primary structures and conformations of polysaccharides and includes a discussion of physical methods, including X-ray crystallography. Chapter 6 is a necessary collection of material, covering both synthetic and biologically-relevant heterolytic chemistry not involving the anomeric centre; in some topics (e.g. hydride transfer from NAD(P)H) discussed in this chapter, carbohydrates play only a very minor role. Chapter 7 deals with reactions involving homolytic chemistry. As noted in the author’s preface, this book was originally intended as a contribution to an RSC-sponsored series of volumes on physical organic chemistry but the untimely death of the series editor, Professor Andrew Williams, resulted in its publication as a stand-alone volume. This provenance has produced a book which extensively draws on the approaches of physical organic chemistry, applying them to the study of carbohydrate-active enzymecatalyzed reactions. The enzyme-catalyzed chemistry of the anomeric centre represents the author’s particular area of expertise, and Chapter 5 contains extensive, personal, valuable commentary on numerous studies in this area. The author provides a detailed, tutorial overview of the area, and so the systems chosen, though extensive, are not necessarily comprehensive. The historical overview of the enzymology of glycosyl hydrolases provided by this chapter is particulary interesting, highlighting several significant and perhaps under-appreciated papers. Sinnott writes with a fluid style throughout, and where he disagrees with the conclusions drawn by authors of the primary research papers, he makes clear why he does so. This encourages the reader to question the conclusions that can reasonably be drawn from experimental data and which experiments may be used to choose amongst competing mechanisms. The general approach adopted towards all enzyme-catalyzed glycosyl group transfers that occur with retention of chemistry should be readily approachable to those involved in the structural elucidation of stable enzyme-intermediate complexes. It assumes that if an