Classification of chitinases modules.

Chitinases frequently display a modular structure featuring a catalytic domain attached to one or several ancillary noncatalytic domains whose function is often chitin binding. Gene cloning and DNA sequencing have allowed the determination of a massive number of amino acid sequences of chitinases during the last 10 years. This chapter presents a unifying classification system of the various chitinase modules that combines specific features of their sequences, three-dimensional structures and reaction mechanisms.