Chitinases (EC 3.2.1.14) are the glycoside hydrolases (GH) that catalyse the cleavage of β-(1,4) glycosidic linkages of chitin, which is a key element of fungal cell wall and insect's exoskeletons. Fungi have been considered as an excellent source for the production of extracellular chitinases, which could further be employed for chitin degradation to generate a range of bioactive chito-derivatives, i.e., oligosaccharides and glucosamine. Moreover, chitinases have diverse roles in various physiological functions, i.e., autolysis, cell wall remodeling, mycoparasitism and biocontrol. The advent of technology led to the sequencing of several fungal genomes and enabled the manipulation of novel effective chitinase genes to investigate their mechanistic and structural insights to decode the variabilities in chitin degradation. Further, the comprehensible understanding of attributes including substrate-binding sites and catalytic domains could give an insight into chitin catabolism for value-added products development. The review summarized various aspects of fungal chitinases viz. structure, mechanism, classification, properties, functions and application in the present precis. The study has also underlined the recent research related to the framework of substrate-binding clefts in fungal chitinases and its correlation with the hydrolytic and transglycosylation (TG) activity for the production of oligosaccharides with variable degrees of polymerization.

几丁质酶 (EC 3.2.1.14) 是糖苷水解酶 (GH)，可催化几丁质的 β-(1,4) 糖苷键断裂，几丁质是真菌细胞壁和昆虫外骨骼的关键成分。真菌被认为是生产细胞外几丁质酶的极好来源，其可进一步用于几丁质降解以产生一系列生物活性的几丁质衍生物，即寡糖和葡糖胺。此外，几丁质酶在自溶、细胞壁重塑、支原体寄生和生物防治等多种生理功能中发挥着不同的作用。技术的出现导致了几个真菌基因组的测序，并使得能够操纵新的有效几丁质酶基因来研究它们的机制和结构洞察力，以解码几丁质降解的可变性。更远，对包括底物结合位点和催化结构域在内的属性的全面理解可以深入了解用于增值产品开发的几丁质分解代谢。该综述总结了真菌几丁质酶的各个方面，即。结构、机理、分类、性质、功能及应用。该研究还强调了最近与真菌几丁质酶中底物结合裂缝框架及其与水解和转糖基化 (TG) 活性相关的研究，以生产具有不同聚合度的寡糖。该综述总结了真菌几丁质酶的各个方面，即。结构、机理、分类、性质、功能及应用。该研究还强调了最近与真菌几丁质酶中底物结合裂缝框架及其与水解和转糖基化 (TG) 活性相关的研究，以生产具有不同聚合度的寡糖。该综述总结了真菌几丁质酶的各个方面，即。结构、机理、分类、性质、功能及应用。该研究还强调了最近与真菌几丁质酶中底物结合裂缝框架及其与水解和转糖基化 (TG) 活性相关的研究，以生产具有不同聚合度的寡糖。