It is to be emphasized that an important aspect of the industrial
application of glycosidases consists in targeted trimming
of long, natural polysaccharide chains, thus producing
either the desired small active compound directly or embodied
in a set of defined derivatives of increasing molecular
weight (e.g., di-, tri-, tetrasaccharides, etc.). Thus, a highmannose
oligosaccharide was selectively trimmed by various
glycosidases to yield a library of carbohydrate compounds.[55]
Another use is the targeted degradation of plant material,
such as of lignocellulose,[56] arabinoxylan[57] or lignin-containing
polymeric feedstock.[