Novel enzymes for functional carbohydrates production : from scientific research to application in health food industry Introduction Recent advances in ketose 3 epimerase and its application for D allulose production D Mannose producing isomerases and epimerases properties comparisons and different strategies L Arabinose isomerase: sources biochemical properties and its use for the production of D tagatose Various enzymes for the biotechnological production of D allose Characteristics of cellobiose 2 epimerase and its application in enzymatic production of epilactose Lactulose producing enzymes: functions structures and applications Enzymatic production of lactosucrose by levansucrase β fructofuranosidase and β galactosidase Difructose anhydrides producing fructotransferase: Characteristics catalytic mechanism and applications Characteristics of levansucrase and its application for the preparation of levan and levan type oligosaccharides Inulosucrase: an effective transfructosylation tool for the synthesis of microbial inulin Amylosucrase: a versatile sucrose utilizing transglucosylase for glycodiversification Glucansucrases derived from lactic acid bacteria to synthesize multitudinous α glucan Trends in enzyme technology for functional carbohydrates production. This book focuses on the latest research and new techniques in the field of functional carbohydrate related enzymes. Carbohydrates are a key form of energy for most organisms. The “good” carbohydrates generally refer to functional carbohydrates. In addition to the low or moderate energy supplying function they have more nutritious value than traditional carbohydrates and some of them also have health promoting effects especially prebiotic actions. Several enzymatic methods for the synthesis of such carbohydrates have been discovered and developed in the recent decades providing a new range of application areas for these novel enzymes. This book addresses the classification of functional carbohydrate related enzymes and the overall development in food enzyme in Chapter 1. Chapters 2 5 describe the isomerases or epimerases involved in the production of rare sugars such as D allulose D mannose D tagatose and D allose. While the studies of the enzymes related to fructo oligosaccharides (FOS) and galacto oligosaccharides (GOS) dominate the scientific literature in the field of enzymatic production of health functional oligosaccharides some enzymes also show promise for the emerging oligosaccharide production which are introduced in Chapters 6 8. Chapters 9 12 summarize the new enzymatic technologies and applications in fructan and glycan related industries. The last Chapter gives an overall prospective on the trends of enzymatic functional carbohydrate production. This book is a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students in the fields of biotechnology enzyme engineering and carbohydrate production as well as the health industry.