Structure, biosynthesis and biodegradation of plant and fungal cell walls. Special attention has been devoted to polysaccharide transglycosylases/hydrolases having the capacity to join together polysaccharide molecules by a mechanism of transglycosylation. From the plant enzymes, the most studied has been the xyloglucan endotransglycosylase/hydrolase (XET/XTH). A part of our activity is devoted to designing of new, sensitive and specific high-throughput methods for assays of particular groups of fungal transglycosylases active in cell wall formation and modification. Using the new, sensitive fluorescent assays, the catalytic properties of chitin-specific transglycosylases Crh1 and Crh2, β-1,3-glucan specific glucanosyl transferases Gas1- Gas5 from Saccharomyces cervisiae as well as of their homologs Phr1 and Phr2 from Candida utilis were determined.

FARKAŠ, V. - TAKEO, K. - MACEKOVÁ, D. - OHKUSU, M. - YOSHIDA, S. - SIPICZKI, M.:
Secondary cell wall formation in Cryptococcus neoformans as a rescue mechanism against acid-induced autolysis. FEMS Yeast Res. 9: 311-320 (2009).

KOSÍK, O. - AUBURN, R. - RUSSELL, S. - STRATILOVÁ, E. - GARAJOVÁ, S. - HRMOVA, M. - FARKAŠ, V.:
Polysaccharide microarrays for high-throughput screening of transglycosylase activities in plant extracts. Glycoconj. J. 27: 79-87 (2110). doi: 10.1007/s10719-009-9271-8.

STRATILOVÁ, E. - AIT MOHAND, F. - ŘEHULKA, P. - GARAJOVÁ, S. - FLODROVÁ, D. - ŘEHULKOVÁ, H. - FARKAŠ, V.:
Xyloglucan Endotransglycosylases (XETs) from germinating nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) seeds: Isolation and characterization of the major form. Plant Physiol. Biochem. in press, doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2010.01.016.

VAAJE-KOLSTAD, G. - FARKAŠ, - FINCHER, G. B. - HRMOVA, M.:
Barley xyloglucan xyloglucosyl transferases bind xyloglucan-derived oligosaccharides in their acceptor-binding regions in multiple conformational states. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 496: 61-68 (2010). doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2010.01.011.

VAAJE-KOLSTAD, G. - FARKAŠ, - HRMOVA, M. - FINCHER, G. B.:
Xyloglucan xyloglucosyl transferases from barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) bind oligomeric and polymeric xyloglucan molecules in their acceptor binding sites. Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 1800: 674-684 (2010), doi: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2010.04.001

KOSÍK, O. - GARAJOVÁ, S. - MATULOVÁ, M. - ŘEHULKA, P. - STRATILOVÁ, E. - FARKAŠ, V.
Effect of the label of oligosaccharide acceptors on kinetic parameters of nasturtium seed xyloglucan endotransglycosylase. In Carbohydrate Research. Vol. 346, (2011), p. 357-361. doi: 10.1016/j.carres.2010.09.004.

MAZÁŇ, M. - RAGNI, E. - POPOLO, L. - FARKAŠ, V.
Catalytic properties of the Gas family -(1,3)-glycanosyltransferases active in fungal cell-wall biogenesis as determined by a novel fluorescent assay. In Biochemical Journal. Vol. 438, (2011), p. 275-282. doi: 10.1042/BJ20110405.

PEDERSEN, L. H. - FANGEL, J. U. - McCLEARY, B. - RUZANSKI, C. - RYDAHL, M. G. - RALET, M. C. - FARKAŠ, V. - von SCHANZ, L. - et al.
Versatile high resolution oligosaccharide microarrays for plant glycobiology and cell wall research. In Journal of Biological Chemistry. Vol. 287, (2012), p. 39429-39438. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M112.396598.

MAZÁŇ, M. - BLANCO, N. - KOVÁČOVÁ, K. - FIRÁKOVÁ, Z. - ŘEHULKA, P. - FARKAŠ, V. - ARROYO, J.
A novel fluorescence assay and catalytic properties of Crh1 and Crh2 yeast cell wall transglycosylases. In Biochemical Journal, Vol. 455, (2013), p. 307-318. doi:10.1042/BJ20130354.