Cellobiose dehydrogenase - an extracellular fungal flavocytochrome

Wood-degrading fungi, including white-rot and soft-rot fungi as well as at least one brown-rot fungus, produce cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH). CDH has generated recent interest because of its ability to facilitate the formati on of free radicals and because it makes a nice model to study intraprotein electron transfer. While the physiological function of CDH is not known, a considerable portion of this review discusses the strength of the data dea ling with individual hypothesis. New evidence dealing with proteolysis of C DH in relationship to the interaction of CDH with lignin and manganese pero xidases are discussed. Additionally, recent information dealing with the ca talytic mechanism and reactivity of the individual domains of CDH is detail ed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.